Photo: Veillg1 · CC BY-SA 4.0Flood mapping exists for Vankleek Hill: 1 on record, latest by South Nation Conservation
Little of the land around Vankleek Hill has burned: 0% within 25 km since 1986, or 0.000% a year. Seismic risk runs high: $0.16 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Radon is about average around Vankleek Hill: 6.1% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town. Hazard risk gives Vankleek Hill a grade of C+, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Vankleek Hill’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Vankleek Hill: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Vankleek Hill faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Vankleek Hill grades C+ for hazard risk
The grade weighs Vankleek Hill’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: #808 of 866 in Ontario and #2,000 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: The seismic figure is a long-run average from NRCan’s model, not a prediction. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Few fires near Vankleek Hill: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Vankleek Hill’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
A burn rate of 0.000% a year keeps Vankleek Hill in the low band (the typical Canadian town: 0.000%).
Forest fuel is spread evenly around Vankleek Hill: 7.9% within 5 km, 10% 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 in Ontario, 0.16% a year; around Vankleek Hill, as around 638 of the 871 towns, it rounds to zero.
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.
The low band holds 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns, and Vankleek Hill sits at its very bottom; only 7.5% are above it.
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 Vankleek Hill, from South Nation Conservation : 1 on the inventory
Flood studies whose area touches Vankleek Hill, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
The flood study touching Vankleek Hill is South Nation Conservation ’s, dated 2016; its own map shows the zones street by street.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Delineating Flood Hazard and Associated Impacts in the Hawkesbury Creek Watershed | South Nation Conservation | 2016 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Its flood study puts Vankleek Hill 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.
Nothing here counts toward Risk; the studies are pointers to the maps their owners keep for Vankleek Hill.
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 Vankleek Hill’s costliest hazard: $0.16 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.
The typical town loses $0.030 a year to shaking; Vankleek Hill loses $0.16, 5.4 times as much.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Earthquake risk in Ontario peaks in Alexandria ($0.21); Vankleek Hill, at $0.16, 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.
Vankleek Hill sits above most of Canada’s 2,611 towns on earthquake risk; 14% 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 model counts damage to Vankleek Hill’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).
Radon about average around Vankleek Hill: 6.1% over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
The survey area of Vankleek Hill reads 6.1%, a shade from the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
More homes top the guideline around Vankleek Hill (6.1%) than in the typical town in Ontario (4%); 1% went over 600.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
A middling share of high tests puts Vankleek Hill with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns, below 26% of them.
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 survey sampled homes around Vankleek Hill; it can’t tell you your basement’s level.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011). · Area behind the radon tests figures: the The Eastern Ontario Health Unit
Weather and fire alerts for Vankleek Hill
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Vankleek Hill; 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 Vankleek Hill, and listen to local authorities for orders.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Vankleek Hill’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vankleek Hill | Low | $0.16 | 6.1% | Yes |
| Hawkesbury 11,451 · 5.9 km | Low | $0.16 | 6.1% | Yes |
| Grenville 1,889 · 8.3 km | Low | $0.12 | 10% | None listed |
| Grenville-sur-la-Rouge 3,040 · 9.0 km | Low | $0.093 | 10% | None listed |
| East Hawkesbury 3,787 · 16 km | Low | $0.20 | 6.1% | None listed |
Hawkesbury burns a little more than Vankleek Hill, 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 Vankleek Hill faces
What to do about the hazards Vankleek Hill 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.
- Drop, cover and hold on.
- Strap the water heater down.
- Keep 72 hours of supplies.
- Has it had a radon test?
- Check the address on the flood map.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
- Is earthquake cover included?
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 Vankleek Hill’s.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. A study’s area can be a whole watershed or province, so being on the inventory says a map exists, not that a home in Vankleek Hill floods.
- Radon is a survey. The radon share comes from about 14,000 long-term home tests in 2009–2011, pooled for now by the 2007 health region Vankleek Hill sits in.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Vankleek Hill’s homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Vankleek Hill
Does Vankleek Hill flood?
Vankleek Hill’s area has been studied for flooding, and the owner’s map shows which streets lie in a zone; the grade leaves flood out.
Is Vankleek Hill at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 0% of the land around Vankleek Hill since 1986 (last in 2024); at low, it neither helps nor hurts the grade.
How big is the earthquake risk in Vankleek Hill?
Expected earthquake damage in Vankleek Hill comes to $0.16 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
How is Vankleek Hill’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Vankleek Hill grades C+ for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
Is radon a problem in Vankleek Hill?
Around Vankleek Hill, 99 survey homes were tested and 6.1% 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).