Photo: Quinten Wiegersma · CC BY 4.0Uplands faces fewer hazards than 90% of Canadian towns
No wildfire is mapped within 25 km of Uplands’ homes since 1986 (0% of the land, 0.000% a year). Earthquake risk in Uplands is ordinary: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.020 a year per $1,000 of value, close to the typical town’s $0.030. In Health Canada’s survey, just 1.8% of homes tested in the area exceeded 200 Bq/m³ (6.6% typical). Uplands grades A for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Uplands’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Uplands: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Uplands faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Uplands grades A for hazard risk
Earthquake risk and radon make Uplands’ grade; wildfire can only lower it, never raise it, and flood studies are listed but not scored.
Its place: #43 of 866 in Ontario and #347 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: The seismic figure is a long-run average from NRCan’s model, not a prediction. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Wildfire is rare near Uplands: 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Uplands’ residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Uplands burns at 0.000% a year, low against 0.000% for the typical Canadian town.
Forest fuel is scarce around Uplands: 0.3% of the land within 5 km, 0.5% within 25 km.
Shares of land within 5 and 25 km of populated blocks: burned at least once in 1986–2025 (CWFIS burned-area composite), forest fuel and grass (fire behaviour fuel types, 2026, 250 m grid).
Burn rate a year, towns in Ontario · highest of 871
Sioux Lookout has the highest burn rate in Ontario, 0.16% a year; around Uplands, as around 638 of the 871 towns, it rounds to zero.
Each bar: the yearly average share of land within 25 km of a town’s homes that burned, 1986–2025 (CWFIS); the seven highest towns of 2,500 people or more.
Uplands shares the low band with 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns, its burn rate rounding to nothing; 7.5% burn faster.
Bands of the yearly burn rate: low under 0.05%, moderate under 0.25%, high under 1%, very high 1% or more; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Canadian Wildland Fire Information System: National Burned Area Composite 1986–2025 and fire behaviour fuel types (2026), Natural Resources Canada. Measured within 25 km and 5 km of each populated dissemination area; past fire, not a forecast.
The flood map inventory lists nothing for Uplands
Flood studies whose area touches Uplands, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
An empty entry for Uplands on the inventory isn’t proof of safety; ask locally for flood maps.
Towns with a flood study on file
Uplands has no flood study on file, though 69% of towns in Ontario do (Canada: 58%).
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Flood studies don’t enter the grade; they are listed so you can open the official map for Uplands.
The inventory’s own caution (NRCan): “The Canada Flood Map (CFM) does not include every flood hazard map in Canada and may be incomplete or contain inaccuracies. It should not be relied upon as the official source of flood mapping information. Furthermore, if a map appears to be missing, this does not necessarily mean that the area has never been mapped. For the official version of a map, updated information, or confirmation of applicable regulations, please contact the local authority responsible for flood mapping.”
Earthquakes cost buildings in Uplands $0.020 per $1,000 a year
NRCan’s seismic risk model: the damage shaking is expected to do to buildings each year, on average over many years.
At $0.020 per $1,000, Uplands’ earthquake risk is about the typical Canadian town’s ($0.030; 0.7 times).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
The typical town in Ontario expects $0.043 a year in shaking damage; Uplands expects less, $0.020, and Alexandria the most, $0.21.
NRCan seismic risk model (2022): mean yearly building loss per $1,000 of value; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Around half of Canada’s 2,611 towns expect more shaking damage than Uplands (64%).
Each column: the share of Canada’s towns of 2,500 people or more in that range of yearly loss per $1,000 (NRCan, 2022).
The model counts damage to Uplands’ buildings and their occupants from shaking only: not liquefaction, landslides, tsunami or fires after a quake.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean). · Earthquake risk: the city of London
1.8% of homes tested around Uplands are over the radon guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
Radon runs below the typical Canadian town (6.6%) in Uplands’ area, at 1.8%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Radon runs lower around Uplands than in most towns in Ontario: 1.8% against 4%.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Few tests over the guideline: Uplands shares the bottom band with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns, below the other 63%.
Each bar: the share of Canada’s towns of 2,500 people or more whose survey area had that share of tests over 200 Bq/m³.
One home in Uplands can be high while next door is low; a three-month test settles it.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011). · Radon tests: one figure for all of the Middlesex-London Health Unit
Weather and fire alerts for Uplands
Alerts for Uplands come from Environment and Climate Change Canada and, for emergencies, Alert Ready.
| Alert | What it means |
|---|---|
| Warning | Severe weather is happening or about to: act now. |
| Watch | Conditions favour severe weather: be ready. |
| Advisory | Weather that is less severe but could disrupt the day. |
| Special weather statement | Unusual weather worth knowing about. |
| Special air quality statement | Poor air, often wildfire smoke. |
Alert Ready carries evacuation orders for Uplands to phones; CWFIS shows the day’s fire danger.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Uplands’ neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Uplands | Low | $0.020 | 1.8% | None listed |
| Sunningdale 21,645 · 1.5 km | Low | $0.020 | 1.8% | None listed |
| Stoneybrook 7,662 · 2.0 km | Low | $0.020 | 1.8% | None listed |
| Stoney Creek 9,387 · 2.1 km | Low | $0.020 | 1.8% | None listed |
| Masonville 10,359 · 2.3 km | Low | $0.020 | 1.8% | None listed |
| North London 9,584 · 4.1 km | Low | $0.020 | 1.8% | None listed |
| Carling 21,536 · 4.4 km | Low | $0.020 | 1.8% | None listed |
Fire is no heavier anywhere nearby than around Uplands (low), with Sunningdale next at low.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Uplands faces
Practical steps for Uplands’ hazards, most pressing first.
- Test for three months in winter.
- Over 200 Bq/m³: fix it.
- Kits are cheap; pros test too.
- Never drive through floodwater.
- Move papers and medicines upstairs.
- Ask whether your street is mapped.
- Clear needles and wood nearby.
- Keep a grab-and-go bag ready.
- In smoke, stay in; filter air.
- Has it had a radon test?
- Ask the municipality for flood maps.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Earthquakes are modelled. Shaking damage is modelled from the ground, the buildings and the odds of each quake, and published for whole subdivisions such as Uplands’.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. A study’s area can be a whole watershed or province, so being on the inventory says a map exists, not that a home in Uplands floods.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Uplands’ homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
- Radon is a survey. The radon share comes from about 14,000 long-term home tests in 2009–2011, pooled for now by the 2007 health region Uplands sits in.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Uplands
How big is the earthquake risk in Uplands?
About $0.020 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Uplands.
Does Uplands flood?
No study on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory covers Uplands (0), which doesn’t mean it has never been mapped, so ask the municipality.
Is Uplands at risk of wildfire?
The burned-area record shows next to nothing around Uplands (0% within 25 km since 1986), so its band is low.
Is radon a problem in Uplands?
1.8% of the 110 homes Health Canada tested around Uplands topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
How is Uplands’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Uplands grades A for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
Seismic risk: Natural Resources Canada. Radon: Health Canada. Wildfire: Canadian Wildland Fire Information System. Flood studies: Natural Resources Canada, Canada Flood Map Inventory. Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – Canada.
Sources: NRCan, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model 2022 · Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes · CWFIS, National Burned Area Composite and FBP fuel types · NRCan, Canada Flood Map Inventory. Under the Statistics Canada Open Licence.
Adapted from Statistics Canada (Census of Population 2021, population estimates 2025, 2021 census boundaries) under the Statistics Canada Open Licence; this does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada. Neighbourhood names in some cities © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).