Photo: Canmenwalker · CC BY 4.0Dixie faces fewer hazards than 86% of Canadian towns
For Dixie, wildfire history is close to nil: 0% of nearby land since 1986, 0.000% a year. Earthquake risk in Dixie is ordinary: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.040 a year per $1,000 of value, close to the typical town’s $0.030. Fewer homes than usual carry radon here, 0% over the guideline where the typical town has 6.6%. Hazard risk gives Dixie a grade of A, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Dixie’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Dixie: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Dixie faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Dixie: A
Two inputs always count for Dixie, earthquakes and radon; the third, wildfire, counts only against a town.
Its place: #194 of 866 in Ontario and #529 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 Dixie has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km since 1986
Past fire around Dixie’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
With 0.000% burned a year, Dixie is among the many low-band places (the typical Canadian town 0.000%).
Around Dixie the forest is thin or far off: 0.1% of the land within 5 km and 0.5% within 25 km is forest fuel.
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
Near-zero burning puts Dixie with 638 of the 871 towns in Ontario, far below Sioux Lookout at 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.
Only 7.5% of Canada’s 2,610 towns are above the low band, which holds 92%; Dixie, at a rounded zero, is far from them.
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.
Dixie is on the flood map inventory: 1 study, by Toronto Regional Conservation Authority
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Dixie: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
Toronto Regional Conservation Authority holds the flood mapping that covers Dixie (2021), linked below.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Toronto Floodline Consolidation | Toronto Regional Conservation Authority | 2021 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Flood maps are common in Ontario: 69% of towns have one, against 58% nationally, and Dixie is among them.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Flood mapping is shown for Dixie to be opened and checked, never turned into a grade.
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.
Earthquakes cost buildings in Dixie $0.040 per $1,000 a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Nothing unusual about Dixie’s ground: $0.040 against a typical $0.030, 1.3 times.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Neither high nor low in Ontario: Dixie’s $0.040 sits by the median of $0.043, while Alexandria reaches $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.
Dixie sits mid-range among Canada’s 2,611 towns: 43% expect more shaking damage.
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 Dixie’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). · Data for earthquake risk covers the city of Mississauga
Little radon around Dixie: 0% of area homes over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
Radon runs below the typical Canadian town (6.6%) in Dixie’s area, at 0%. Nobody publishes radon tests for Dixie alone, so this card uses the figure for the Peel Regional Health Unit.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Radon runs lower around Dixie than in most towns in Ontario: 0% against 4%.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Dixie is in the lowest band, with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns: under 5% of tests over the guideline, while 63% have more.
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.
The survey sampled homes around Dixie; it can’t tell you your basement’s level.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Dixie
Alerts for Dixie 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 Dixie to phones; CWFIS shows the day’s fire danger.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Dixie’s neighbours compare on hazards
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dixie | Low | $0.040 | 0% | Yes |
| Applewood 33,229 · 1.6 km | Low | $0.040 | 0% | Yes |
| Markland Wood 10,559 · 1.9 km | Low | $0.043 | 2.7% | Yes |
| Alderwood 12,596 · 2.9 km | Low | $0.043 | 2.7% | Yes |
| Rathwood 27,388 · 3.2 km | Low | $0.040 | 0% | Yes |
| Etobicoke West Mall 12,218 · 3.4 km | Low | $0.043 | 2.7% | Yes |
| Mississauga Valleys 11,799 · 3.8 km | Low | $0.040 | 0% | Yes |
None of the places around has more fire nearby than Dixie (low); Applewood comes closest (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Dixie faces
What to do about the hazards Dixie 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.
- Clear needles and wood nearby.
- Keep a grab-and-go bag ready.
- In smoke, stay in; filter air.
- Has it had a radon test?
- Check the address on the flood map.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Dixie’s figure is its subdivision’s.
- 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 Dixie floods.
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Dixie’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
- 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 Dixie sits in.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Dixie
Is Dixie at risk of wildfire?
The burned-area record shows next to nothing around Dixie (0% within 25 km since 1986), so its band is low.
How is Dixie’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Dixie A, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
How big is the earthquake risk in Dixie?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Dixie $0.040 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
Does Dixie flood?
Dixie’s area has been studied for flooding, and the owner’s map shows which streets lie in a zone; the grade leaves flood out.
Is radon a problem in Dixie?
In Health Canada’s survey, 0% of 90 homes tested in Dixie’s area were above 200 Bq/m³, though only a test tells you about one house.
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).