Photo: Larry from Charlottetown, PEI, Canada · CC BY 2.0Miscouche is on Canada’s flood inventory: 2 listed, led by Department of Environment, Energy and Climate Action - Government of Prince Edward Island
For Miscouche, wildfire history is close to nil: 0% of nearby land since 1986, 0.000% a year. Earthquake risk in Miscouche is ordinary: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.036 a year per $1,000 of value, close to the typical town’s $0.030. Fewer homes than usual carry radon here, 3.5% over the guideline where the typical town has 6.6%. Miscouche grades A− for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Miscouche’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Miscouche: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Miscouche faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Miscouche grades A− for hazard risk
The grade weighs Miscouche’s seismic risk and radon equally, and wildfire is one-sided: a high band counts against a town, a low one earns nothing.
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.
Little of the land around Miscouche has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km since 1986
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Miscouche’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
A burn rate of 0.000% a year keeps Miscouche in the low band (the typical Canadian town: 0.000%).
Forest crowds in on Miscouche: 31% of the land within 5 km is forest fuel, more than the 23% 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
None of the 13 towns on Prince Edward Island has a burn rate above zero to three decimals; Miscouche 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.
Miscouche shares the low band with 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns, its burn rate rounding to nothing; 7.5% burn faster.
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.
2 flood studies cover Miscouche, the newest from Department of Environment, Energy and Climate Action - Government of Prince Edward Island
Flood studies whose area touches Miscouche, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
Department of Environment, Energy and Climate Action - Government of Prince Edward Island and others have studied flooding in areas that include Miscouche: 2 studies, the latest from 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
100% of towns on Prince Edward Island have a flood study, more than Canada’s 58%; Miscouche has one too.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
The grade leaves flood out, since a study area says nothing about how many of Miscouche’s homes are at risk.
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 Miscouche $0.036 per $1,000 a year
NRCan’s seismic risk model: the damage shaking is expected to do to buildings each year, on average over many years.
At $0.036 per $1,000, Miscouche’s earthquake risk is about the typical Canadian town’s ($0.030; 1.2 times).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Top on Prince Edward Island: Miscouche’s $0.036 against a 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.
Middle of the pack: 46% of Canada’s 2,611 towns have more earthquake risk than Miscouche.
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).
Roads, pipes and bridges aren’t in Miscouche’s figure, nor landslides or tsunami: it is buildings and shaking.
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 Miscouche: 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. · Source area for radon tests: the Prince Edward Island Health Region
Where the typical Canadian town has 6.6% of homes over the guideline, Miscouche’s area has fewer, 3.5%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
The typical town on Prince Edward Island has 3.5% over 200 Bq/m³; Miscouche’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.
The quietest radon band, under 5%, holds 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns and Miscouche; 63% sit 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.
Basements, soil and how a house is sealed decide its radon, so in Miscouche only a test can say.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Miscouche
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Miscouche; 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 Miscouche come through Environment Canada and Alert Ready; the fire map is CWFIS’s.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Miscouche’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Miscouche | Low | $0.036 | 3.5% | Yes |
| Summerside 19,006 · 6.3 km | Low | $0.030 | 3.5% | Yes |
| Wellington 1,972 · 12 km | Low | $0.031 | 3.5% | Yes |
| Kensington, Part 1 3,357 · 16 km | Low | $0.029 | 3.5% | Yes |
| Kensington 2,016 · 17 km | Low | $0.032 | 3.5% | Yes |
| Malpeque Bay 1,351 · 18 km | Low | $0.027 | 3.5% | Yes |
The neighbour with the most fire is Summerside (low), still no more than Miscouche (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Miscouche faces
What to do about the hazards Miscouche 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.
- 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. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Miscouche’s homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. Flood studies cover areas of every size, which is why the page lists them for Miscouche without grading them.
- 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 Miscouche’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 Miscouche until then.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Miscouche
Is Miscouche at risk of wildfire?
Very little by the national record: Miscouche’s band is low, with 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
How big is the earthquake risk in Miscouche?
Expected earthquake damage in Miscouche comes to $0.036 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
Does Miscouche flood?
A flood study covers Miscouche on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory; open the owner’s map to check a street, since flood isn’t graded.
How is Miscouche’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Miscouche grades A− for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
Is radon a problem in Miscouche?
Around Miscouche, 113 survey homes were tested and 3.5% 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).