Photo: Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit , Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center · Public domainHazard risk in Crossroads is lower than in 87% of Canadian towns
Fire has left almost no mark near Crossroads: 0% of the land within 25 km since 1986, 0.000% a year. Shaking is about as much of a worry in Crossroads as in most places, at $0.020 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). Fewer homes than usual carry radon here, 3.5% over the guideline where the typical town has 6.6%. Crossroads grades A for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Crossroads’s hazards
For Crossroads, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Crossroads faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Crossroads grades A for hazard risk
Seismic risk and radon set Crossroads’ 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.
Wildfire is rare near Crossroads: 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Crossroads’ residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Forty years of fire maps put Crossroads at 0.000% a year, low next to the typical Canadian town’s 0.000%.
Forest thickens with distance from Crossroads: 20% of the land within 5 km, 26% 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 13
Fire is all but absent around the 13 towns on Prince Edward Island, Crossroads included.
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.
Measured against 2,610 towns, Crossroads is in the largest group, low (92%), and at its floor, while 7.5% rank higher.
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 Crossroads is mapped in 2 studies, the newest by Department of Environment, Energy and Climate Action - Government of Prince Edward Island
Flood studies whose area touches Crossroads, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
For Crossroads 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 Crossroads is among them.
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 Crossroads.
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.
Ordinary seismic risk in Crossroads: $0.020 per $1,000 of buildings 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 Crossroads, $0.020 per $1,000, are in line with the typical $0.030 (0.7 times).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Typical for its province: Crossroads at $0.020 beside a median on Prince Edward Island of $0.020, with O'Leary on top at $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.
Middle of the pack: 64% of Canada’s 2,611 towns have more earthquake risk than Crossroads.
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).
For Crossroads the model prices shaking damage to buildings, nothing more.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
Little radon around Crossroads: 3.5% of area homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
Radon runs below the typical Canadian town (6.6%) in Crossroads’ area, at 3.5%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Around Crossroads, 3.5% of tests topped the guideline, about the same as the typical town 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.
63% of Canada’s 2,611 towns have a higher share of homes over 200 Bq/m³ than Crossroads’ band, which holds 37%.
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.
Health Canada advises testing every home, Crossroads’ included, whatever the area’s figure.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011). · Data for radon tests covers the Prince Edward Island Health Region
Where to get warnings in Crossroads
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Crossroads; 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 Crossroads 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 Crossroads
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crossroads | Low | $0.020 | 3.5% | Yes |
| Stratford 13,152 · 5.9 km | Low | $0.021 | 3.5% | Yes |
| Charlottetown 48,118 · 9.0 km | Low | $0.019 | 3.5% | Yes |
| North Shore 1,609 · 10 km | Low | $0.021 | 3.5% | Yes |
| East River, Part 1 2,657 · 11 km | Low | $0.020 | 3.5% | Yes |
| Vernon River 2,779 · 11 km | Low | $0.020 | 3.5% | Yes |
| Cornwall 7,920 · 13 km | Low | $0.019 | 3.5% | Yes |
Nowhere around Crossroads burns more: Stratford, the closest rival, is low to its low.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Crossroads faces
Practical steps for Crossroads’ 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
- 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 Crossroads sits in.
- Wildfire counts one way. Burned land within 25 km of where people live, averaged over 1986–2025 and checked for fuel near homes, is the measure; it looks back, not ahead, and only ever counts against Crossroads.
- Earthquakes are modelled. The earthquake figure is an expected loss, not a forecast, worked out by NRCan for each census subdivision, Crossroads’ included.
- 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 Crossroads floods.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Crossroads
Is Crossroads at risk of wildfire?
Hardly at all on record: 0% of the land within 25 km of Crossroads since 1986, a low band, though small grass fires aren’t mapped.
Is radon a problem in Crossroads?
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 Crossroads.
How is Crossroads’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Crossroads A, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Does Crossroads flood?
Crossroads’ area has been studied for flooding, and the owner’s map shows which streets lie in a zone; the grade leaves flood out.
How big is the earthquake risk in Crossroads?
Expected earthquake damage in Crossroads comes to $0.020 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
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).