Photo: P199 · CC BY-SA 3.0Flood mapping exists for Plympton-Wyoming: 1 on record, latest by St. Clair Region Conservation Authority
Wildfire barely registers for Plympton-Wyoming, at 0% of the land within 25 km since 1986 (0.000% a year). Seismic risk runs low: $0.014 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. In Health Canada’s survey, 8.4% of homes tested in Plympton-Wyoming’s area exceeded 200 Bq/m³, close to the typical 6.6%. Hazard risk gives Plympton-Wyoming a grade of B+, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Plympton-Wyoming’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Plympton-Wyoming: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Plympton-Wyoming faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Plympton-Wyoming: B+
For Plympton-Wyoming, Risk will be the average of earthquakes and radon, with wildfire added only if it makes the average worse.
Its place: #468 of 866 in Ontario and #909 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.
Few fires near Plympton-Wyoming: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Plympton-Wyoming’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Fire claims 0.000% of the land around Plympton-Wyoming each year, a low band, with the typical Canadian town at 0.000%.
Land that isn’t forest covers nearly all the ground around Plympton-Wyoming: forest fuel is 0.1% within 5 km and 0.3% 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, Plympton-Wyoming 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.
Plympton-Wyoming shares the low band with 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns, its burn rate rounding to nothing; 7.5% burn faster.
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.
St. Clair Region Conservation Authority has mapped flooding for Plympton-Wyoming (1 study)
Flood studies whose area touches Plympton-Wyoming, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
The flood study touching Plympton-Wyoming is St. Clair Region Conservation Authority’s, dated 2009; its own map shows the zones street by street.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| SCRCA Floodplain Estimation Study for Ontario Regulation 171-06 | St. Clair Region Conservation Authority | 2009 | final · not public |
Towns with a flood study on file
69% of towns in Ontario have a flood study, more than Canada’s 58%; Plympton-Wyoming has one too.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
The grade leaves flood out, since a study area says nothing about how many of Plympton-Wyoming’s homes are at risk.
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.
Little shaking expected in Plympton-Wyoming: $0.014 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.
Shaking costs the typical town $0.030 a year; in Plympton-Wyoming it is only $0.014, 0.5 times as much.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
At $0.014, Plympton-Wyoming is below the typical town in Ontario ($0.043); Alexandria is highest 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.
Most of Canada’s 2,611 towns (73%) face more earthquake damage than Plympton-Wyoming.
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 loss is to Plympton-Wyoming’s buildings alone, from ground shaking; infrastructure and secondary hazards are left out.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
8.4% of homes tested around Plympton-Wyoming are over the radon guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
Near the middle for radon: Plympton-Wyoming’s area 8.4%, the typical Canadian town 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Around Plympton-Wyoming, 8.4% of tests were over 200 Bq/m³ and 0.6% over 600, against a median of 4% in Ontario.
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 Plympton-Wyoming, 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.
One home in Plympton-Wyoming 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). · Not measured by town: radon tests (the Lambton Health Unit)
Weather and fire alerts for Plympton-Wyoming
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Plympton-Wyoming; 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. |
Smoke and fire warnings for Plympton-Wyoming come through Environment Canada and Alert Ready; the fire map is CWFIS’s.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Plympton-Wyoming
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plympton-Wyoming | Low | $0.014 | 8.4% | Yes |
| Petrolia 6,422 · 13 km | Low | $0.015 | 8.4% | Yes |
| Enniskillen 3,174 · 15 km | Low | $0.017 | 8.4% | Yes |
None of the places around has more fire nearby than Plympton-Wyoming (low); Petrolia comes closest (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Plympton-Wyoming faces
Practical steps for Plympton-Wyoming’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
- 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 Plympton-Wyoming floods.
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Plympton-Wyoming’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; Plympton-Wyoming’s figure is its subdivision’s.
- 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 Plympton-Wyoming sits in.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Plympton-Wyoming
Does Plympton-Wyoming flood?
Plympton-Wyoming’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 Plympton-Wyoming?
The area’s survey found 8.4% of 178 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Plympton-Wyoming.
Is Plympton-Wyoming at risk of wildfire?
Hardly at all on record: 0% of the land within 25 km of Plympton-Wyoming since 1986, a low band, though small grass fires aren’t mapped.
How big is the earthquake risk in Plympton-Wyoming?
Expected earthquake damage in Plympton-Wyoming comes to $0.014 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
How is Plympton-Wyoming’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Plympton-Wyoming’s Hazard risk grade is B+, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
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).