Photo: P199 · CC BY-SA 3.0Hazards in Sioux Lookout: wildfire moderate, radon over the guideline in 14% of tested homes
Wildfire is a moderate presence around Sioux Lookout: 6.3% of the land within 25 km has burned since 1986, 0.16% a year, short of the band that counts against Risk. Earthquakes matter little: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.006 a year per $1,000 of value, against $0.030 for the typical town. Sioux Lookout grades B for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Sioux Lookout’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Sioux Lookout: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Sioux Lookout faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Sioux Lookout: B
The grade weighs Sioux Lookout’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: #614 of 866 in Ontario and #1,405 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.
Some fire around Sioux Lookout: 6.3% of the land within 25 km since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Sioux Lookout’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
At 0.16% of the land a year, Sioux Lookout’s burn rate is moderate; the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%.
Sioux Lookout’s homes have had no fire within 5 km since 1986; the closest was 8.5 km away.
86% of the land within 5 km of Sioux Lookout is forest fuel, close to the 85% 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
Sioux Lookout has the highest burn rate of the 871 towns in Ontario, 0.16% a year; next is Red Lake at 0.14%.
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.
Moderate puts Sioux Lookout above most of Canada’s 2,610 towns, yet 2.1% rank high or very high and 5.4% share its band.
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 Sioux Lookout
Flood studies whose area touches Sioux Lookout, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
Nationally, Sioux Lookout has no listed flood study; the municipality is the place to ask.
Towns with a flood study on file
Flood maps are common in Ontario, 69% of towns against 58% nationally, but none in the inventory touches Sioux Lookout.
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 Sioux Lookout 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.”
Little shaking expected in Sioux Lookout: $0.006 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.
0.2 times the typical $0.030: Sioux Lookout’s $0.006 is low for Canada.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Below the middle in Ontario: Sioux Lookout’s $0.006 against a median of $0.043; Alexandria has $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.
Toward the quiet end of Canada’s range: 88% of its 2,611 towns sit above Sioux Lookout.
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 model counts damage to Sioux Lookout’s buildings and their occupants from shaking only: not liquefaction, landslides, tsunami or fires after a quake.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
14% of homes tested around Sioux Lookout are over the radon guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · Radon tests for the Northwestern Health Unit
More homes than usual test high around Sioux Lookout: 14% against 6.6% for the typical Canadian town.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
More homes top the guideline around Sioux Lookout (14%) than in the typical town in Ontario (4%); 1.9% went over 600.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
4.6% of Canada’s 2,611 towns have a higher share of homes over 200 Bq/m³ than Sioux Lookout, in the 10–20% band with 22%.
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 Sioux Lookout as anywhere, test to be sure.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Sioux Lookout
Alerts for Sioux Lookout 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. |
Fire danger and active fires near Sioux Lookout are mapped daily by the Canadian Wildland Fire Information System; evacuation orders come from the municipality or province.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Get ready for what Sioux Lookout faces
What to do about the hazards Sioux Lookout faces, and what to ask before you buy.
- Clear needles and wood nearby.
- Keep a grab-and-go bag ready.
- In smoke, stay in; filter air.
- 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.
- Has it had a radon test?
- Ask the municipality for flood maps.
- How close is the forest edge?
- 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 Sioux Lookout’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Sioux Lookout 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 Sioux Lookout.
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Sioux Lookout’s figure is its subdivision’s.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Sioux Lookout
Does Sioux Lookout flood?
With 0 studies on the inventory, Sioux Lookout’s flood risk is unmapped nationally; check with the municipality before buying.
How big is the earthquake risk in Sioux Lookout?
Expected earthquake damage in Sioux Lookout comes to $0.006 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
How is Sioux Lookout’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Sioux Lookout B, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Is Sioux Lookout at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 6.3% of the land around Sioux Lookout since 1986 (last in 2015); at moderate, it neither helps nor hurts the grade.
Is radon a problem in Sioux Lookout?
Around Sioux Lookout, 210 survey homes were tested and 14% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
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).