Photo: Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit , Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center · Public domainAlberton is on Canada’s flood inventory: 2 listed, led by Department of Environment, Energy and Climate Action - Government of Prince Edward Island
Around Alberton, wildfire is practically absent from the record: 0% within 25 km since 1986, 0.000% a year. NRCan expects $0.032 of shaking damage a year per $1,000 of buildings in Alberton, near the typical $0.030. Radon is lower than usual: 3.5% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town. Hazard risk gives Alberton a grade of A−, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Alberton’s hazards
For Alberton, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Alberton faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Alberton: A−
Seismic risk and radon set Alberton’s grade, wildfire can drag it down, and flood mapping stays out of it.
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.
Few fires near Alberton: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Past fire around Alberton’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
Alberton burns at 0.000% a year, low against 0.000% for the typical Canadian town.
Nothing inside 5 km of Alberton’s homes has burned since 1986, and the nearest scar is 6.3 km off.
The nearer ring around Alberton is less wooded (24% forest fuel) than the land out to 25 km (41%).
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 on Prince Edward Island · highest of 13
None of the 13 towns on Prince Edward Island has a burn rate above zero to three decimals; Alberton is no exception.
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 Alberton 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.
Flooding around Alberton is mapped in 2 studies, the newest by Department of Environment, Energy and Climate Action - Government of Prince Edward Island
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Alberton: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
For Alberton the inventory points to 2 studies, most recently Department of Environment, Energy and Climate Action - Government of Prince Edward Island’s in 2024.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| PEI Pluvial Flood Mapping | Department of Environment, Energy and Climate Action - Government of Prince Edward Island | 2024 | final |
| Prince Edward Island Coastal Hazards | Province of PEI, Department of Environment, Energy and Climate Action | 2021 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Flood maps are common on Prince Edward Island: 100% of towns have one, against 58% nationally, and Alberton is among them.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Flood is shown here, never graded: a study says where a map exists, not how many of Alberton’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 Alberton: $0.032 a year per $1,000
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Alberton’s $0.032 is close to the typical town’s $0.030 (1.1 times as much).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Earthquake risk on Prince Edward Island peaks in O'Leary ($0.034); Alberton, at $0.032, sits above the median of $0.020.
NRCan seismic risk model (2022): mean yearly building loss per $1,000 of value; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Around half of Canada’s 2,611 towns expect more shaking damage than Alberton (48%).
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).
Only shaking damage to buildings in Alberton is counted; landslides, liquefaction, tsunami and fire after a quake aren’t.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
Radon runs low around Alberton: 3.5% of tested homes over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline. · Source area for radon tests: the Prince Edward Island Health Region
Fewer homes than usual test high around Alberton: 3.5% against 6.6% for the typical Canadian town.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
The typical town on Prince Edward Island has 3.5% over 200 Bq/m³; Alberton’s area has 3.5%, much the same.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Few tests over the guideline: Alberton 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.
Whatever Alberton’s area share, the reading that matters is your own home’s, over a winter.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Alberton
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Alberton; 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. |
Smoke and fire warnings for Alberton come through Environment Canada and Alert Ready; the fire map is CWFIS’s.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Alberton
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alberton | Low | $0.032 | 3.5% | Yes |
| Alberton 1,498 · 4.4 km | Low | $0.034 | 3.5% | Yes |
| Miminegash 1,166 · 9.7 km | Low | $0.032 | 3.5% | Yes |
| O'Leary 2,878 · 12 km | Low | $0.034 | 3.5% | Yes |
| O'Leary 1,021 · 13 km | Low | $0.039 | 3.5% | Yes |
Alberton’s low band tops its neighbours; Alberton is next (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Alberton faces
Practical steps for Alberton’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. For Alberton, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. Flood studies cover areas of every size, which is why the page lists them for Alberton without grading them.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Alberton’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
- Radon is a survey. Radon figures pool the survey’s home tests by area: postal areas once their boundaries arrive, the 2007 health region around Alberton until then.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Alberton
Is radon a problem in Alberton?
The area’s survey found 3.5% of 113 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Alberton.
Is Alberton at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Alberton’s low band (0% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2024) is short of the level that counts.
How is Alberton’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Alberton grades A− for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
How big is the earthquake risk in Alberton?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Alberton $0.032 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
Does Alberton flood?
A flood study covers Alberton on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory; open the owner’s map to check a street, since flood isn’t graded.
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).