Photo: OldYorkGuy · CC BY-SA 3.0A flood study covers Moss Park: 1 on the national inventory, the newest from Toronto Regional Conservation Authority
The national fire record shows next to nothing around Moss Park, 0% of the land within 25 km since 1986 (0.000% a year). Seismic risk in Moss Park sits near the middle: $0.043 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Fewer homes than usual carry radon here, 2.7% over the guideline where the typical town has 6.6%. Moss Park grades A− for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Moss Park’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Moss Park: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Moss Park faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Moss Park grades A− for hazard risk
The grade weighs Moss Park’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: #285 of 866 in Ontario and #700 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. The radon share rests on 74 home tests in the survey area, so a few homes move it. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Little of the land around Moss Park has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km since 1986
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Moss Park’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Next to the typical Canadian town (0.000% a year), Moss Park’s 0.000% is in the low band.
Land that isn’t forest covers nearly all the ground around Moss Park: forest fuel is 1.2% within 5 km and 0.8% 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
Little or nothing burns around Moss Park in a typical year; 638 of the 871 towns in Ontario share that, and Sioux Lookout leads 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.
Moss Park 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.
Moss Park is on the flood map inventory: 1 study, by Toronto Regional Conservation Authority
Flood studies whose area touches Moss Park, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
One study on the inventory touches Moss Park, Toronto Regional Conservation Authority’s from 2021, and its area can be large, so it says a map exists, not that the town floods.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Toronto Floodline Consolidation | Toronto Regional Conservation Authority | 2021 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Mapping in Ontario reaches 69% of towns, Moss Park included, beside 58% across Canada.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Nothing here counts toward Risk; the studies are pointers to the maps their owners keep for Moss Park.
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.
Earthquakes cost buildings in Moss Park $0.043 per $1,000 a year
NRCan’s seismic risk model: the damage shaking is expected to do to buildings each year, on average over many years.
Earthquake losses in Moss Park, $0.043 per $1,000, are in line with the typical $0.030 (1.4 times).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Moss Park’s $0.043 is close to the median 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.
Moss Park sits mid-range among Canada’s 2,611 towns: 36% expect more shaking damage.
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).
Roads, pipes and bridges aren’t in Moss Park’s figure, nor landslides or tsunami: it is buildings and shaking.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean). · Data for earthquake risk covers the city of Toronto
2.7% of homes tested around Moss Park are over the radon guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
Moss Park’s survey area reads 2.7% over the guideline, under the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%. For radon tests, the only official count covers all of the City of Toronto Health Unit, Moss Park included.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Against the typical town in Ontario (4%), the area around Moss Park has fewer high tests: 2.7%.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Radon rarely tops the guideline around Moss Park, as for 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 63% see more.
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.
Basements, soil and how a house is sealed decide its radon, so in Moss Park only a test can say.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Moss Park
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Moss Park; 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. |
For fires near Moss Park, the national fire information system maps danger and active fires daily; local authorities give any evacuation order.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Moss Park
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Moss Park | Low | $0.043 | 2.7% | Yes |
| Downtown Yonge East 18,251 · 0.7 km | Low | $0.043 | 2.7% | None listed |
| Regent Park 12,797 · 0.7 km | Low | $0.043 | 2.7% | Yes |
| Cabbagetown-South St.James Town 11,205 · 1.0 km | Low | $0.043 | 2.7% | Yes |
| St Lawrence-East Bayfront-The Islands 31,360 · 1.0 km | Low | $0.043 | 2.7% | Yes |
| Yonge-Bay Corridor 12,888 · 1.3 km | Low | $0.043 | 2.7% | None listed |
| North St.James Town 18,733 · 1.7 km | Low | $0.043 | 2.7% | Yes |
None of the places around has more fire nearby than Moss Park (low); Downtown Yonge East comes closest (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Moss Park faces
What to do about the hazards Moss Park 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
- 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 Moss Park.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Moss Park’s homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
- 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 Moss Park’s.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Moss Park is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Moss Park
How big is the earthquake risk in Moss Park?
About $0.043 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Moss Park.
Does Moss Park flood?
There is flood mapping for Moss Park on the national inventory, each study linked to its owner’s map, none of them graded.
Is Moss Park at risk of wildfire?
No meaningful wildfire history near Moss Park: 0% of nearby land since 1986, band low.
Is radon a problem in Moss Park?
In Health Canada’s survey, 2.7% of 74 homes tested in Moss Park’s area were above 200 Bq/m³, though only a test tells you about one house.
How is Moss Park’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Moss Park’s Hazard risk grade is A−, 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).