Photo: Vince Alongi from Delta, B.C., Canada · CC BY 2.0Cardinal Creek is on Canada’s flood inventory: 6 listed, led by Rideau Valley Conservation Authority
The burned-area map is nearly blank around Cardinal Creek, 0% within 25 km since 1986, 0.000% a year. Earthquakes add more: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.15 a year per $1,000 of value, against $0.030 for the typical town. In Health Canada’s survey, 6.2% of homes tested in Cardinal Creek’s area exceeded 200 Bq/m³, close to the typical 6.6%. Cardinal Creek grades C+ for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Cardinal Creek’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Cardinal Creek: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Cardinal Creek faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Cardinal Creek grades C+ for hazard risk
Earthquake risk and radon make Cardinal Creek’s grade; wildfire can only lower it, never raise it, and flood studies are listed but not scored.
Its place: #703 of 866 in Ontario and #1,894 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: The seismic figure is a long-run average from NRCan’s model, not a prediction. Only 64 homes were tested in the survey area, so the radon share is rough. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Wildfire is rare near Cardinal Creek: 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Cardinal Creek’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Forty years of fire maps put Cardinal Creek at 0.000% a year, low next to the typical Canadian town’s 0.000%.
Fire has stayed at least 17 km from Cardinal Creek’s homes since 1986.
9.1% of the land within 25 km of Cardinal Creek is forest fuel, yet only 2.5% within 5 km of its homes.
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 Cardinal Creek, 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.
The low band holds 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns, and Cardinal Creek sits at its very bottom; only 7.5% are above it.
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.
Cardinal Creek is on the flood map inventory: 6 studies, latest by Rideau Valley Conservation Authority
Flood studies whose area touches Cardinal Creek, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
The newest of 6 studies covering Cardinal Creek is Rideau Valley Conservation Authority’s, from 2019; open its map to see the zones.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Billberry Creek | Rideau Valley Conservation Authority | 2019 | final |
| Becketts Creek | Rideau Valley Conservation Authority | 2018 | final |
| Rideau River, Hogs Back to Rideau Falls | Rideau Valley Conservation Authority | 2016 | final |
| Gatineau-Argenteuil-Collindes-de-l'Outaouais | Municipalité de Pontiac | 2016 | final |
| Cardinal Creek | Rideau Valley Conservation Authority | 2014 | final |
| Ottawa River | Rideau Valley Conservation Authority | 2014 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Mapping in Ontario reaches 69% of towns, Cardinal Creek included, beside 58% across Canada.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Listed, not scored: a flood study proves a map exists, not that Cardinal Creek floods.
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 Cardinal Creek’s costliest hazard: $0.15 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.
Roughly 5 times the typical $0.030: Cardinal Creek’s $0.15 marks real seismic exposure.
For earthquake risk, the only official count covers all of the city of Ottawa, Cardinal Creek included.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
At $0.15, Cardinal Creek is above the typical town in Ontario ($0.043); Alexandria has the most at $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.
More earthquake risk than most: only 15% of Canada’s 2,611 towns are above Cardinal Creek.
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 Cardinal Creek’s 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).
6.2% of homes tested around Cardinal Creek are over the radon guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · Measured across the City of Ottawa Health Unit: radon tests
At 6.2% over the guideline, the area around Cardinal Creek is about level with the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Radon runs higher around Cardinal Creek than in most towns in Ontario: 6.2% against 4%.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Radon tops the guideline in a modest share of homes around Cardinal Creek, a band holding 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 26% rank above.
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.
A survey sample isn’t a map: any home in Cardinal Creek can be high, and a three-month test is the only way to know.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Cardinal Creek
Alerts for Cardinal Creek 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. |
Evacuation orders for Cardinal Creek come from the municipality or the province, while CWFIS maps fire danger every day.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Cardinal Creek’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cardinal Creek | Low | $0.15 | 6.2% | Yes |
| Fallingbrook 17,836 · 1.8 km | Low | $0.15 | 6.2% | Yes |
| Queenswood Heights 8,998 · 3.1 km | Low | $0.15 | 6.2% | Yes |
| Portobello South 29,960 · 3.3 km | Low | $0.15 | 6.2% | Yes |
| Queenswood - Chatelaine 4,537 · 3.3 km | Low | $0.15 | 6.2% | Yes |
| Orleans Village - Chateauneuf 12,399 · 4.7 km | Low | $0.15 | 6.2% | Yes |
| Cumberland 6,139 · 5.3 km | Low | $0.15 | 6.2% | Yes |
Fire is no heavier anywhere nearby than around Cardinal Creek (low), with Fallingbrook next at low.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Cardinal Creek faces
Practical steps for Cardinal Creek’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.
- 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
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Cardinal Creek’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; Cardinal Creek’s figure is its subdivision’s.
- 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 Cardinal Creek until then.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. Flood studies cover areas of every size, which is why the page lists them for Cardinal Creek without grading them.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Cardinal Creek
How big is the earthquake risk in Cardinal Creek?
Expected earthquake damage in Cardinal Creek comes to $0.15 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
Is radon a problem in Cardinal Creek?
The area’s survey found 6.2% of 64 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Cardinal Creek.
Is Cardinal Creek at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Cardinal Creek’s low band (0% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2025) is short of the level that counts.
How is Cardinal Creek’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Cardinal Creek C+, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Does Cardinal Creek flood?
A flood study covers Cardinal Creek on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory; open the owner’s map to check a street, since flood isn’t graded.
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).