Photo: P199 · CC BY-SA 4.0Flood mapping exists for McNab/Braeside: 1 on record, latest by MRC de Pontiac
Around McNab/Braeside, wildfire is practically absent from the record: 0% within 25 km since 1986, 0.001% a year. Seismic risk runs high: $0.11 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Radon is about average around McNab/Braeside: 8% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town. Hazard risk gives McNab/Braeside a grade of C+, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about McNab/Braeside’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for McNab/Braeside: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What McNab/Braeside faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
McNab/Braeside grades C+ for hazard risk
Two inputs always count for McNab/Braeside, earthquakes and radon; the third, wildfire, counts only against a town.
Its place: #816 of 866 in Ontario and #2,038 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.
Little of the land around McNab/Braeside has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km since 1986
Fires mapped since 1986 around where McNab/Braeside’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
At 0.001% of the land a year, McNab/Braeside’s burn rate is in the low band; the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%.
Since 1986 the nearest fire to McNab/Braeside’s homes came within 7.8 km, never inside 5 km.
Forest fuel is spread evenly around McNab/Braeside: 27% within 5 km, 28% 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
McNab/Braeside ranks 83rd of the 871 towns in Ontario for burn rate, at 0.001% a year; Sioux Lookout leads with 0.16%.
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.
7.5% of Canada’s 2,610 towns burn fast enough to rank moderate or above; McNab/Braeside stays low, with 92%.
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.
A flood study covers McNab/Braeside, from MRC de Pontiac: 1 on the inventory
Flood studies whose area touches McNab/Braeside, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
The flood study touching McNab/Braeside is MRC de Pontiac’s, dated 2006; its own map shows the zones street by street.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chenal-du-Grand-Calumet-Rocher-Fendu | MRC de Pontiac | 2006 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
McNab/Braeside is one of the 69% of towns in Ontario with a flood study on file; across Canada it is 58%.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Nothing here counts toward Risk; the studies are pointers to the maps their owners keep for McNab/Braeside.
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.”
Natural Resources Canada, Canada Flood Map Inventory; links go to each study’s owner.
Shaking is McNab/Braeside’s costliest hazard: $0.11 a year per $1,000
NRCan’s seismic risk model: the damage shaking is expected to do to buildings each year, on average over many years.
The typical town loses $0.030 a year to shaking; McNab/Braeside loses $0.11, 3.8 times as much.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
The typical town in Ontario expects $0.043 a year; McNab/Braeside expects $0.11, and Alexandria $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.
In the upper part of Canada’s range: 24% of its 2,611 towns expect more damage than McNab/Braeside.
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).
Roads, pipes and bridges aren’t in McNab/Braeside’s figure, nor landslides or tsunami: it is buildings and shaking.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
Radon about average around McNab/Braeside: 8% over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
Around McNab/Braeside, 8% of tested homes topped the guideline, near the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Radon runs higher around McNab/Braeside than in most towns in Ontario: 8% over the guideline (4% is typical), 1% over 600.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
A middling share of high tests puts McNab/Braeside with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns, below 26% of them.
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 McNab/Braeside 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: the Renfrew County and District Health Unit
Weather and fire alerts for McNab/Braeside
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for McNab/Braeside; Alert Ready carries the urgent ones to phones, radio and TV.
| 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. |
For fires near McNab/Braeside, the national fire information system maps danger and active fires daily; local authorities give any evacuation order.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around McNab/Braeside
The same four hazards for the places next door.
McNab/Braeside’s low band tops its neighbours; Bristol is next (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what McNab/Braeside faces
What to do about the hazards McNab/Braeside faces, and what to ask before you buy.
- 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.
- Drop, cover and hold on.
- Strap the water heater down.
- Keep 72 hours of supplies.
- Has it had a radon test?
- Check the address on the flood map.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
- Is earthquake cover included?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. Flood studies cover areas of every size, which is why the page lists them for McNab/Braeside without grading them.
- Radon is a survey. Radon figures pool the survey’s home tests by area: postal areas once their boundaries arrive, the 2007 health region around McNab/Braeside until then.
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around McNab/Braeside’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; McNab/Braeside’s figure is its subdivision’s.
Questions about flooding and hazards in McNab/Braeside
How big is the earthquake risk in McNab/Braeside?
About $0.11 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for McNab/Braeside.
Is McNab/Braeside at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 0% of the land around McNab/Braeside since 1986 (last in 2020); at low, it neither helps nor hurts the grade.
Is radon a problem in McNab/Braeside?
Around McNab/Braeside, 100 survey homes were tested and 8% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
Does McNab/Braeside flood?
A flood study covers McNab/Braeside on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory; open the owner’s map to check a street, since flood isn’t graded.
How is McNab/Braeside’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
McNab/Braeside grades C+ 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).