Photo: Dwrite7841 · CC BY-SA 4.0Port Perry faces fewer hazards than 94% of Canadian towns
For Port Perry, wildfire history is close to nil: 0% of nearby land since 1986, 0.000% a year. For earthquakes Port Perry is middling, $0.023 a year per $1,000 against $0.030 for the typical town. In Health Canada’s survey, just 0% of homes tested in the area exceeded 200 Bq/m³ (6.6% typical). Hazard risk gives Port Perry a grade of A, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Port Perry’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Port Perry: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Port Perry faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Port Perry: A
Seismic risk and radon set Port Perry’s grade, wildfire can drag it down, and flood mapping stays out of it.
Its place: #27 of 866 in Ontario and #269 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.
Little of the land around Port Perry has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km since 1986
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Port Perry’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Port Perry burns at 0.000% a year, low against 0.000% for the typical Canadian town.
Since 1986 the nearest fire to Port Perry’s homes came within 22 km, never inside 5 km.
17% of the land within 5 km of Port Perry is forest fuel, close to the 16% 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, Port Perry 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.
Port Perry 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.
Port Perry is on the flood map inventory: 5 studies, latest by Central Lake Ontario Conservation Authority
Flood studies whose area touches Port Perry, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
For Port Perry the inventory points to 5 studies, most recently Central Lake Ontario Conservation Authority’s in 2025.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lynde Creek Watershed | Central Lake Ontario Conservation Authority | 2025 | final |
| Nonquon Industrial Tributary Area | Kawartha Conservation Authority | 2005 | final · not public |
| Cawkers Creek 07 | Kawartha Conservation Authority | 1996 | final · not public |
| South Port Perry Tributary | Kawartha Conservation Authority | 1995 | final · not public |
| Blackstock Creek | Kawartha Conservation Authority | 1990 | final · not public |
Towns with a flood study on file
Its flood study puts Port Perry 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.
Mapping around Port Perry began in the 1990s; the 1990s saw the most work (3 of 5 studies), the latest in the 2020s.
Study dates as the NRCan inventory lists them, one count per study touching Port Perry.
Flood is shown here, never graded: a study says where a map exists, not how many of Port Perry’s homes stand in a flood zone.
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 Port Perry: $0.023 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.
0.8 times the typical $0.030: Port Perry’s $0.023 is ordinary.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
At $0.023, Port Perry 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.
Middle of the pack: 54% of Canada’s 2,611 towns have more earthquake risk than Port Perry.
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 Perry’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).
0% of homes tested around Port Perry 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 Durham Regional Health Unit: radon tests
Fewer homes than usual test high around Port Perry: 0% against 6.6% for the typical Canadian town.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Fewer homes top the guideline around Port Perry (0%) than in the typical town in Ontario (4%).
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Few tests over the guideline: Port Perry shares the bottom band with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns, below the other 63%.
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.
The share describes the area, not a house: in Port Perry as anywhere, test to be sure.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Port Perry
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Port Perry; 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 Perry, and listen to local authorities for orders.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Port Perry’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Port Perry | Low | $0.023 | 0% | Yes |
| Uxbridge 22,618 · 18 km | Low | $0.021 | 0% | Yes |
Uxbridge burns a little more than Port Perry, in the same low band (low here).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Port Perry faces
Practical steps for Port Perry’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. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Port Perry’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Port Perry is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- 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 Perry.
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Port Perry’s figure is its subdivision’s.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Port Perry
Is Port Perry at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Port Perry’s low band (0% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2001) is short of the level that counts.
Is radon a problem in Port Perry?
The area’s survey found 0% of 95 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Port Perry.
Does Port Perry flood?
There is flood mapping for Port Perry on the national inventory, each study linked to its owner’s map, none of them graded.
How is Port Perry’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Port Perry’s Hazard risk grade is A, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
How big is the earthquake risk in Port Perry?
About $0.023 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Port Perry.
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).