Photo: Larry from Charlottetown, PEI, Canada · CC BY 2.0Few places are as safe from hazards as Charlottetown: it beats 88% of Canadian towns
No wildfire is mapped within 25 km of Charlottetown’s homes since 1986 (0% of the land, 0.000% a year). Earthquake risk in Charlottetown is ordinary: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.019 a year per $1,000 of value, close to the typical town’s $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. Charlottetown grades A for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Charlottetown’s hazards
For Charlottetown, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Charlottetown faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Charlottetown: A
Earthquake risk and radon make Charlottetown’s grade; wildfire can only lower it, never raise it, and flood studies are listed but not scored.
Its place: #2 of 12 on Prince Edward Island and #511 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.
Wildfire is rare near Charlottetown: 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Past fire around Charlottetown’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
Around Charlottetown fire takes 0.000% of the land in a typical year, the typical Canadian town 0.000%, which is low.
Forest thickens with distance from Charlottetown: 7.3% of the land within 5 km, 20% 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 on Prince Edward Island · highest of 12
Every one of the 12 towns on Prince Edward Island, Charlottetown among them, has a yearly burn rate that 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.
Most of the country’s 2,610 towns are low-band (92%, against 7.5% above); around Charlottetown, burning rounds to zero.
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 Charlottetown 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 Charlottetown: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
For Charlottetown 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
Mapping on Prince Edward Island reaches 100% of towns, Charlottetown 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.
Flood is shown here, never graded: a study says where a map exists, not how many of Charlottetown’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.
Earthquakes cost buildings in Charlottetown $0.019 per $1,000 a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Charlottetown’s $0.019 is close to the typical town’s $0.030 (0.6 times as much).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Shaking damage around Charlottetown runs at $0.019 a year, near the $0.020 of the typical town on Prince Edward Island; O'Leary has $0.034.
NRCan seismic risk model (2022): mean yearly building loss per $1,000 of value; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Charlottetown is in the lower part of Canada’s range for earthquake risk; 66% of the 2,611 towns 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).
What a quake does after the shaking, fire, landslides, tsunami, falls outside NRCan’s figure for Charlottetown.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
3.5% of homes tested around Charlottetown are over the radon guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
Radon runs below the typical Canadian town (6.6%) in Charlottetown’s area, at 3.5%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Charlottetown’s area, at 3.5%, is close to the median on Prince Edward Island (3.5%).
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Under 5% puts Charlottetown with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 63% have more high tests.
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 Charlottetown 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). · Radon tests: one figure for all of the Prince Edward Island Health Region
Where to get warnings in Charlottetown
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Charlottetown; 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 Charlottetown 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 Charlottetown
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Charlottetown | Low | $0.019 | 3.5% | Yes |
| Cornwall 7,920 · 5.4 km | Low | $0.019 | 3.5% | Yes |
| Stratford 13,152 · 5.8 km | Low | $0.021 | 3.5% | Yes |
| Crossroads 2,366 · 9.0 km | Low | $0.020 | 3.5% | Yes |
| Miltonvale Park 1,279 · 9.4 km | Low | $0.019 | 3.5% | Yes |
| North Shore 1,609 · 10 km | Low | $0.021 | 3.5% | Yes |
| North Shore 2,994 · 13 km | Low | $0.020 | 3.5% | Yes |
Among its neighbours Charlottetown has the most fire on record (low); Cornwall follows (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Charlottetown faces
Practical steps for Charlottetown’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
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. Flood studies cover areas of every size, which is why the page lists them for Charlottetown 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 Charlottetown’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 Charlottetown until then.
- Wildfire counts one way. For Charlottetown, 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 Charlottetown
Is Charlottetown at risk of wildfire?
Hardly at all on record: 0% of the land within 25 km of Charlottetown since 1986, a low band, though small grass fires aren’t mapped.
How is Charlottetown’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Charlottetown grades A for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
Does Charlottetown flood?
A flood study covers Charlottetown on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory; open the owner’s map to check a street, since flood isn’t graded.
Is radon a problem in Charlottetown?
3.5% of the 113 homes Health Canada tested around Charlottetown topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
How big is the earthquake risk in Charlottetown?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Charlottetown $0.019 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
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).