Photo: WB Robinson Photographer · CC BY-SA 4.0A flood study covers Port Colborne: 9 on the national inventory, the newest from Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority
Wildfire isn’t Port Colborne’s worry: 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (0.000% a year). Seismic risk runs high: $0.066 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Radon is lower than usual: 2% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town. Port Colborne grades B+ for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Port Colborne’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Port Colborne: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Port Colborne faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Port Colborne grades B+ for hazard risk
The grade weighs Port Colborne’s seismic risk and radon equally, and wildfire is one-sided: a high band counts against a town, a low one earns nothing.
Its place: #475 of 866 in Ontario and #923 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Few fires near Port Colborne: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Port Colborne’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
The yearly burn rate around Port Colborne is 0.000%, low beside 0.000% for the typical Canadian town.
Little near Port Colborne’s homes can carry a forest fire; only 1.1% of the land within 5 km is forest fuel, and 1.2% 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
Fire has taken almost none of the land around Port Colborne, as for 638 of the 871 towns in Ontario; Sioux Lookout tops the list 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.
Measured against 2,610 towns, Port Colborne is in the largest group, low (92%), and at its floor, while 7.5% rank higher.
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.
9 flood studies cover Port Colborne, the newest from Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority
Flood studies whose area touches Port Colborne, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
For Port Colborne the inventory points to 9 studies, most recently Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority’s in 2011.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wignell Drain | Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority | 2011 | final |
| Lyons Creek | Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority | 2011 | final |
| Beaver Dam Drain | Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority | 2011 | final |
| Eagle Marsh Drain | Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority | 2010 | final |
| Bearss Drain | Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority | 2010 | final |
| Fort Erie Creeks | Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority | 2008 | final |
| BiedermanDrain | Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority | final | |
| IndianCreek | Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority | final |
1 more studies on the inventory touch Port Colborne.
Towns with a flood study on file
Its flood study puts Port Colborne 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.
The 2010s brought the most flood studies for Port Colborne (5 of 6), the first dating from the 2000s.
Study dates as the NRCan inventory lists them, one count per study touching Port Colborne.
The grade leaves flood out, since a study area says nothing about how many of Port Colborne’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.
Shaking is Port Colborne’s costliest hazard: $0.066 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.
At $0.066 per $1,000, Port Colborne carries roughly 2.2 times the typical Canadian town’s earthquake risk ($0.030).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Earthquake risk in Ontario peaks in Alexandria ($0.21); Port Colborne, at $0.066, sits above the median of $0.043.
NRCan seismic risk model (2022): mean yearly building loss per $1,000 of value; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Port Colborne sits above most of Canada’s 2,611 towns on earthquake risk; 29% 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).
The loss is to Port Colborne’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).
2% of homes tested around Port Colborne are over the radon guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · Source area for radon tests: the Niagara Regional Area Health Unit
Port Colborne’s area, at 2%, is below the 6.6% of the typical Canadian town, though any one home can still be high.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Below the typical town in Ontario (4%) at 2%, the area around Port Colborne still had 2% of tests over 600 Bq/m³.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
The quietest radon band, under 5%, holds 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns and Port Colborne; 63% sit 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.
One home in Port Colborne 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).
Weather and fire alerts for Port Colborne
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Port Colborne; 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 Port Colborne, and listen to local authorities for orders.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Port Colborne’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
Nowhere around Port Colborne burns more: Welland, 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 Port Colborne faces
What to do about the hazards Port Colborne faces, and what to ask before you buy.
- 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. Shaking damage is modelled from the ground, the buildings and the odds of each quake, and published for whole subdivisions such as Port Colborne’s.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Port Colborne is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Port Colborne’s homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. NRCan’s inventory says where flood mapping exists, not where water goes; the map’s owner is the authority for Port Colborne.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Port Colborne
Is Port Colborne at risk of wildfire?
Hardly at all on record: 0% of the land within 25 km of Port Colborne since 1986, a low band, though small grass fires aren’t mapped.
Does Port Colborne flood?
There is flood mapping for Port Colborne on the national inventory, each study linked to its owner’s map, none of them graded.
Is radon a problem in Port Colborne?
In Health Canada’s survey, 2% of 100 homes tested in Port Colborne’s area were above 200 Bq/m³, though only a test tells you about one house.
How is Port Colborne’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Port Colborne grades B+ for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
How big is the earthquake risk in Port Colborne?
Expected earthquake damage in Port Colborne comes to $0.066 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
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).