Photo: Andre Carrotflower · CC BY-SA 4.0Few places are as safe from hazards as Parry Sound: it beats 94% of Canadian towns
Around Parry Sound, wildfire is practically absent from the record: 0% within 25 km since 1986, 0.000% a year. NRCan expects $0.016 of shaking damage a year per $1,000 of buildings in Parry Sound, near the typical $0.030. In Health Canada’s survey, just 1.9% of homes tested in the area exceeded 200 Bq/m³ (6.6% typical). Parry Sound grades A for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Parry Sound’s hazards
For Parry Sound, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Parry Sound faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Parry Sound: A
Seismic risk and radon set Parry Sound’s grade, wildfire can drag it down, and flood mapping stays out of it.
Its place: #26 of 866 in Ontario and #268 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Little of the land around Parry Sound has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km since 1986
Past fire around Parry Sound’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
Fire claims 0.000% of the land around Parry Sound each year, a low band, with the typical Canadian town at 0.000%.
Within 5 km of Parry Sound, 21% of the land is forest fuel; widen the ring to 25 km and it is 35%.
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
Little or nothing burns around Parry Sound in a typical year; 638 of the 871 towns in Ontario share that, and Sioux Lookout leads 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%; Parry Sound, 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.
No flood study is listed for Parry Sound
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Parry Sound: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
An empty entry for Parry Sound on the inventory isn’t proof of safety; ask locally for flood maps.
Towns with a flood study on file
Mapping in Ontario reaches 69% of towns, beside 58% across Canada, but not Parry Sound.
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 Parry Sound.
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.”
Expected shaking damage in Parry Sound: $0.016 a year per $1,000
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
At $0.016 per $1,000, Parry Sound’s earthquake risk is about the typical Canadian town’s ($0.030; 0.5 times).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Parry Sound’s $0.016 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.
Most of Canada’s 2,611 towns (71%) face more earthquake damage than Parry Sound.
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).
What a quake does after the shaking, fire, landslides, tsunami, falls outside NRCan’s figure for Parry Sound.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
Little radon around Parry Sound: 1.9% of area homes over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
Parry Sound’s area, at 1.9%, is below the 6.6% of the typical Canadian town, though any one home can still be high. For radon tests, the only official count covers all of the North Bay Parry Sound District Health Unit, Parry Sound included.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Against the typical town in Ontario (4%), the area around Parry Sound has fewer high tests: 1.9%.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
63% of Canada’s 2,611 towns have a higher share of homes over 200 Bq/m³ than Parry Sound’s band, which holds 37%.
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.
Radon varies from house to house in Parry Sound, so the survey is a reason to test, not a result for yours.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Parry Sound
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Parry Sound; 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. |
In fire season, check CWFIS for danger and active fires around Parry Sound, and listen to local authorities for orders.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Parry Sound
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Parry Sound | Low | $0.016 | 1.9% | None listed |
| The Archipelago 1,057 · 5.8 km | Low | $0.018 | 1.9% | None listed |
| McDougall 3,002 · 12 km | Low | $0.020 | 1.9% | None listed |
| McKellar 1,534 · 16 km | Low | $0.025 | 1.9% | None listed |
| Carling 1,609 · 17 km | Low | $0.018 | 1.9% | None listed |
| Seguin 5,761 · 18 km | Low | $0.020 | 1.9% | None listed |
Nowhere around Parry Sound burns more: The Archipelago, 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 Parry Sound faces
Practical steps for Parry Sound’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?
- Ask the municipality for flood maps.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Parry Sound’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
- Wildfire counts one way. For Parry Sound, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Parry Sound takes its 2007 health region’s share.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. The flood inventory points to maps; it is incomplete and not the official source, so ask the municipality about any street in Parry Sound.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Parry Sound
How big is the earthquake risk in Parry Sound?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Parry Sound $0.016 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
Is radon a problem in Parry Sound?
1.9% of the 103 homes Health Canada tested around Parry Sound topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
How is Parry Sound’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Parry Sound A, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Does Parry Sound flood?
No study on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory covers Parry Sound (0), which doesn’t mean it has never been mapped, so ask the municipality.
Is Parry Sound at risk of wildfire?
The burned-area record shows next to nothing around Parry Sound (0% within 25 km since 1986), so its band is low.
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).