Photo: P199 · CC BY-SA 3.0Flood mapping exists for Otonabee-South Monaghan: 4 on record, latest by Ontonabee Region Conservation Authority
Since 1986 almost nothing has burned near Otonabee-South Monaghan: 0% of the land within 25 km, or 0.000% a year. Earthquake risk in Otonabee-South Monaghan is ordinary: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.029 a year per $1,000 of value, close to the typical town’s $0.030. About as many homes carry radon around Otonabee-South Monaghan as elsewhere, 8.9% over the guideline where the typical town has 6.6%. Hazard risk gives Otonabee-South Monaghan a grade of B−, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Otonabee-South Monaghan’s hazards
For Otonabee-South Monaghan, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Otonabee-South Monaghan faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Otonabee-South Monaghan grades B− for hazard risk
Seismic risk and radon set Otonabee-South Monaghan’s grade, wildfire can drag it down, and flood mapping stays out of it.
Its place: #654 of 866 in Ontario and #1,597 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: The seismic figure is a long-run average from NRCan’s model, not a prediction. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Few fires near Otonabee-South Monaghan: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Past fire around Otonabee-South Monaghan’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
Low by Canadian standards: 0.000% of the land a year around Otonabee-South Monaghan, 0.000% for the typical Canadian town.
There is forest near Otonabee-South Monaghan’s homes (7.4% within 5 km) and more of it further out (15% 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
Of the 871 towns in Ontario, 638 have a burn rate that rounds to zero, Otonabee-South Monaghan among them; Sioux Lookout leads at 0.16% a year.
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.
Most of the country’s 2,610 towns are low-band (92%, against 7.5% above); around Otonabee-South Monaghan, burning rounds to zero.
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.
Otonabee-South Monaghan is on the flood map inventory: 4 studies, latest by Ontonabee Region Conservation Authority
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Otonabee-South Monaghan: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
4 studies on the inventory touch Otonabee-South Monaghan, the newest Ontonabee Region Conservation Authority’s from 1991, and their areas can be large, so they say maps exist, not that the town floods.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Peterborough | Ontonabee Region Conservation Authority | 1991 | final · not public |
| Indian River | Ontonabee Region Conservation Authority | 1983 | final · not public |
| Lakefield West | Ontonabee Region Conservation Authority | 1981 | final · not public |
| Millbrook Town Limits | Ontonabee Region Conservation Authority | 1978 | final · not public |
Towns with a flood study on file
Its flood study puts Otonabee-South Monaghan with 69% of towns in Ontario; Canada’s share is 58%.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Mapping around Otonabee-South Monaghan began in the 1970s; the 1980s saw the most work (2 of 4 studies), the latest in the 1990s.
Study dates as the NRCan inventory lists them, one count per study touching Otonabee-South Monaghan.
Flood studies don’t enter the grade; they are listed so you can open the official map for Otonabee-South Monaghan.
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.
Expected shaking damage in Otonabee-South Monaghan: $0.029 a year per $1,000
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
At $0.029 per $1,000, Otonabee-South Monaghan’s earthquake risk is the typical Canadian town’s $0.030.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Otonabee-South Monaghan’s $0.029 sits under the median in Ontario, $0.043, and well under Alexandria’s $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.
Neither high nor low for Canada: 51% of the 2,611 towns expect more damage than Otonabee-South Monaghan.
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).
For Otonabee-South Monaghan the model prices shaking damage to buildings, nothing more.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
8.9% of homes tested around Otonabee-South Monaghan are over the radon guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline. · The radon tests numbers here cover the Peterborough County-City Health Unit
Around Otonabee-South Monaghan, 8.9% 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 Otonabee-South Monaghan than in most towns in Ontario: 8.9% over the guideline (4% is typical), 0.9% over 600.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Between 5% and 10% of tests over the guideline: Otonabee-South Monaghan, and 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 26% are higher.
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.
Health Canada advises testing every home, Otonabee-South Monaghan’s included, whatever the area’s figure.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Otonabee-South Monaghan
Alerts for Otonabee-South Monaghan 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 Otonabee-South Monaghan to phones; CWFIS shows the day’s fire danger.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Otonabee-South Monaghan
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Otonabee-South Monaghan | Low | $0.029 | 8.9% | Yes |
| Peterborough 97,834 · 11 km | Low | $0.025 | 8.9% | Yes |
| Millbrook 11,507 · 16 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.9% | Yes |
Nowhere around Otonabee-South Monaghan burns more: Peterborough, the closest rival, is low to its low.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Otonabee-South Monaghan faces
Practical steps for Otonabee-South Monaghan’s 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?
- Check the address on the flood map.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Earthquakes are modelled. The earthquake figure is an expected loss, not a forecast, worked out by NRCan for each census subdivision, Otonabee-South Monaghan’s included.
- 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 Otonabee-South Monaghan sits in.
- 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 Otonabee-South Monaghan floods.
- Wildfire counts one way. Burned land within 25 km of where people live, averaged over 1986–2025 and checked for fuel near homes, is the measure; it looks back, not ahead, and only ever counts against Otonabee-South Monaghan.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Otonabee-South Monaghan
How big is the earthquake risk in Otonabee-South Monaghan?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Otonabee-South Monaghan $0.029 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
Is Otonabee-South Monaghan at risk of wildfire?
Hardly at all on record: 0% of the land within 25 km of Otonabee-South Monaghan since 1986, a low band, though small grass fires aren’t mapped.
How is Otonabee-South Monaghan’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Otonabee-South Monaghan’s Hazard risk grade is B−, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
Does Otonabee-South Monaghan flood?
Otonabee-South Monaghan’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 Otonabee-South Monaghan?
The area’s survey found 8.9% of 112 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Otonabee-South Monaghan.
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).