Photo: Loozrboy from Toronto, Canada · CC BY-SA 2.0Point Edward is on Canada’s flood inventory: 1 listed, led by St. Clair Region Conservation Authority
The burned-area map is nearly blank around Point Edward, 0% within 25 km since 1986, 0.000% a year. Shaking is about as much of a worry in Point Edward as in most places, at $0.016 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). Radon around Point Edward is ordinary for Canada: 8.4% of tested homes over the guideline (6.6% typical). Point Edward grades B+ for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Point Edward’s hazards
For Point Edward, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Point Edward faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Point Edward grades B+ for hazard risk
Earthquake risk and radon make Point Edward’s grade; wildfire can only lower it, never raise it, and flood studies are listed but not scored.
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 Point Edward has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km since 1986
Past fire around Point Edward’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
In a typical year 0.000% of the land near Point Edward burns; the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%, and both are low.
Forest fuel is scarce around Point Edward: 0.2% of the land within 5 km, 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 872
Of the 872 towns in Ontario, 639 have a burn rate that rounds to zero, Point Edward 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.
Only 7.5% of Canada’s 2,610 towns are above the low band, which holds 92%; Point Edward, 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.
A flood study covers Point Edward, from St. Clair Region Conservation Authority: 1 on the inventory
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Point Edward: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
St. Clair Region Conservation Authority holds the flood mapping that covers Point Edward (2009), linked below.
| 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%; Point Edward has one too.
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 Point Edward 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.
Expected shaking damage in Point Edward: $0.016 a year per $1,000
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
0.5 times the typical $0.030: Point Edward’s $0.016 is ordinary.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Point Edward’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.
Point Edward is in the lower part of Canada’s range for earthquake risk; 71% of the 2,611 towns are higher.
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 Point Edward 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).
8.4% of homes tested around Point Edward are over the radon guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline. · Radon tests for the Lambton Health Unit
Near the middle for radon: Point Edward’s area 8.4%, the typical Canadian town 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Around Point Edward, 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 Point Edward, 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.
Health Canada advises testing every home, Point Edward’s included, whatever the area’s figure.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Point Edward
Alerts for Point Edward 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 Point Edward 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 Point Edward
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
The neighbour with the most fire is Sarnia (low), still no more than Point Edward (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Point Edward faces
Practical steps for Point Edward’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
- 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 Point Edward.
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Point Edward takes its 2007 health region’s share.
- Earthquakes are modelled. The earthquake figure is an expected loss, not a forecast, worked out by NRCan for each census subdivision, Point Edward’s included.
- 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 Point Edward.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Point Edward
How is Point Edward’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Point Edward grades B+ for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
Does Point Edward flood?
The inventory lists a study touching Point Edward; whether a given street floods is on that map, not in the grade.
Is radon a problem in Point Edward?
8.4% of the 178 homes Health Canada tested around Point Edward topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
How big is the earthquake risk in Point Edward?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Point Edward $0.016 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
Is Point Edward at risk of wildfire?
Hardly at all on record: 0% of the land within 25 km of Point Edward since 1986, a low band, though small grass fires aren’t mapped.
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).