Photo: Larry from Charlottetown, PEI, Canada · CC BY 2.0A flood study covers O'Leary: 1 on the national inventory, the newest from Department of Environment, Energy and Climate Action - Government of Prince Edward Island
No wildfire is mapped within 25 km of O'Leary’s homes since 1986 (0% of the land, 0.000% a year). Earthquake risk in O'Leary is ordinary: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.039 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. O'Leary grades A− for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about O'Leary’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for O'Leary: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What O'Leary faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in O'Leary: A−
Two inputs always count for O'Leary, earthquakes and radon; the third, wildfire, counts only against a town.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Little of the land around O'Leary has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km since 1986
Fires mapped since 1986 around where O'Leary’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
The yearly burn rate around O'Leary is 0.000%, low beside 0.000% for the typical Canadian town.
The 5 km ring around O'Leary’s homes is clear of burns since 1986, the nearest 15 km out.
Forest thickens with distance from O'Leary: 26% of the land within 5 km, 41% 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
Every one of the 13 towns on Prince Edward Island, O'Leary 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 O'Leary, 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.
Department of Environment, Energy and Climate Action - Government of Prince Edward Island has mapped flooding for O'Leary (1 study)
Flood studies whose area touches O'Leary, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
For O'Leary the inventory points to Department of Environment, Energy and Climate Action - Government of Prince Edward Island’s 2024 study, whose map is the one to check.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| PEI Pluvial Flood Mapping | Department of Environment, Energy and Climate Action - Government of Prince Edward Island | 2024 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Mapping on Prince Edward Island reaches 100% of towns, O'Leary 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 mapping is shown for O'Leary to be opened and checked, never turned into a grade.
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 O'Leary: $0.039 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.
1.3 times the typical $0.030: O'Leary’s $0.039 is ordinary.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Top on Prince Edward Island: O'Leary’s $0.039 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.
O'Leary sits mid-range among Canada’s 2,611 towns: 45% expect more shaking damage.
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).
The model counts damage to O'Leary’s buildings and their occupants from shaking only: not liquefaction, landslides, tsunami or fires after a quake.
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 O'Leary: 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 tests for the Prince Edward Island Health Region
Fewer homes than usual test high around O'Leary: 3.5% against 6.6% for the typical Canadian town.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Radon around O'Leary is ordinary for towns on Prince Edward Island: 3.5%, beside a median of 3.5%.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
O'Leary is in the lowest band, with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns: under 5% of tests over the guideline, while 63% have more.
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 O'Leary only a test can say.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for O'Leary
Alerts for O'Leary 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. |
Alert Ready carries evacuation orders for O'Leary to phones; CWFIS shows the day’s fire danger.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How O'Leary’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
O'Leary’s low band tops its neighbours; O'Leary is next (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what O'Leary faces
What to do about the hazards O'Leary 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
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. NRCan’s inventory says where flood mapping exists, not where water goes; the map’s owner is the authority for O'Leary.
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; O'Leary’s figure is its subdivision’s.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for O'Leary is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around O'Leary’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
Questions about flooding and hazards in O'Leary
How is O'Leary’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
O'Leary grades A− for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
Is O'Leary at risk of wildfire?
Less than most of Canada: 0% of the land within 25 km of O'Leary has burned since 1986, the last in 2024, a low band that leaves Risk alone.
Does O'Leary flood?
There is flood mapping for O'Leary on the national inventory, each study linked to its owner’s map, none of them graded.
How big is the earthquake risk in O'Leary?
About $0.039 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for O'Leary.
Is radon a problem in O'Leary?
In Health Canada’s survey, 3.5% of 113 homes tested in O'Leary’s area were above 200 Bq/m³, though only a test tells you about one house.
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).