Photo: P199 · CC BY 3.0Wildfire low, radon 6.1%: how Wendover stands on hazards
Around Wendover, wildfire is practically absent from the record: 0% within 25 km since 1986, 0.000% a year. Shaking is a bigger worry than in most places, at $0.16 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). Hazard risk gives Wendover a grade of C+, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Wendover’s hazards
For Wendover, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Wendover faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Wendover: C+
For Wendover, Risk will be the average of earthquakes and radon, with wildfire added only if it makes the average worse.
Its place: #703 of 866 in Ontario and #1,894 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: The seismic figure is a long-run average from NRCan’s model, not a prediction. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Little of the land around Wendover has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km since 1986
Past fire around Wendover’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
In a typical year 0.000% of the land near Wendover burns; the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%, and both are low.
No fire has burned within 5 km of Wendover’s homes since 1986; the nearest burn is 16 km away.
Forest fuel is spread evenly around Wendover: 7.6% within 5 km, 11% 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 Wendover, 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.
Only 7.5% of Canada’s 2,610 towns are above the low band, which holds 92%; Wendover, at a rounded zero, is far from them.
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.
The flood map inventory lists nothing for Wendover
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Wendover: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
Nationally, Wendover has no listed flood study; the municipality is the place to ask.
Towns with a flood study on file
69% of towns in Ontario have a flood study, more than Canada’s 58%; Wendover is not yet one of them.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Flood studies don’t enter the grade; they are listed so you can open the official map for Wendover.
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.”
Shaking is Wendover’s costliest hazard: $0.16 a year per $1,000
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Wendover’s $0.16 is about 5.2 times the typical town’s $0.030: it sits in one of Canada’s more active seismic zones.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
The typical town in Ontario expects $0.043 a year; Wendover expects $0.16, and Alexandria $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.
More earthquake risk than most: only 15% of Canada’s 2,611 towns are above Wendover.
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).
What a quake does after the shaking, fire, landslides, tsunami, falls outside NRCan’s figure for Wendover.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
Some radon around Wendover: 6.1% of area homes over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline. · Measured across the The Eastern Ontario Health Unit: radon tests
Wendover’s area, at 6.1%, is close to the 6.6% of the typical Canadian town.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Around Wendover, 6.1% of tests were over 200 Bq/m³ and 1% over 600, against a median of 4% in Ontario.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Between 5% and 10% of tests over the guideline: Wendover, and 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 26% are 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.
A low area share in Wendover doesn’t clear a house, nor does a high one condemn it: test.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Wendover
Alerts for Wendover 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. |
Evacuation orders for Wendover come from the municipality or the province, while CWFIS maps fire danger every day.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Wendover
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wendover | Low | $0.16 | 6.1% | None listed |
| Papineauville 2,332 · 8.5 km | Low | $0.11 | 13% | Yes |
| Plaisance 1,191 · 12 km | Low | $0.11 | 13% | None listed |
The fire record around Plaisance is a touch heavier than Wendover’s, but the band is the same: low (here low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Wendover faces
Practical steps for Wendover’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.
- Drop, cover and hold on.
- Strap the water heater down.
- Keep 72 hours of supplies.
- Has it had a radon test?
- Ask the municipality for flood maps.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
- Is earthquake cover included?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Wendover’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
- 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 Wendover sits in.
- 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 Wendover floods.
- Wildfire counts one way. For Wendover, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Wendover
Does Wendover flood?
No study on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory covers Wendover (0), which doesn’t mean it has never been mapped, so ask the municipality.
Is radon a problem in Wendover?
6.1% of the 99 homes Health Canada tested around Wendover topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
Is Wendover at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Wendover’s band is low, with 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (last in 2025), so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
How big is the earthquake risk in Wendover?
In NRCan’s seismic model, Wendover’s buildings lose $0.16 per $1,000 of value in an average year.
How is Wendover’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Wendover C+, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
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).