Photo: Quintin Soloviev · CC BY 4.0A flood study covers Summerside: 2 on the national inventory, the newest from Department of Environment, Energy and Climate Action - Government of Prince Edward Island
The burned-area map is nearly blank around Summerside, 0% within 25 km since 1986, 0.000% a year. Seismic risk in Summerside sits near the middle: $0.030 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Fewer homes than usual carry radon here, 3.5% over the guideline where the typical town has 6.6%. Hazard risk gives Summerside a grade of A−, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Summerside’s hazards
For Summerside, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Summerside faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Summerside grades A− for hazard risk
Earthquake risk and radon make Summerside’s grade; wildfire can only lower it, never raise it, and flood studies are listed but not scored.
Its place: #654 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Wildfire is rare near Summerside: 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Summerside’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
A burn rate of 0.000% a year keeps Summerside in the low band (the typical Canadian town: 0.000%).
Forest fuel covers 7.9% of the land close to Summerside and 20% across 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
None of the 12 towns on Prince Edward Island has a burn rate above zero to three decimals; Summerside 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.
Like most of Canada’s 2,610 towns (92%), Summerside is in the low band, with a burn rate of zero to three decimals; 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 Summerside 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 Summerside, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
For Summerside 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 Summerside 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 Summerside.
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 Summerside: $0.030 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.
At $0.030 per $1,000, Summerside’s earthquake risk is the typical Canadian town’s $0.030.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
At $0.030, Summerside is above the typical town on Prince Edward Island ($0.020); O'Leary has the most 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: 48% of Canada’s 2,611 towns have more earthquake risk than Summerside.
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 Summerside.
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 Summerside: 3.5% of tested 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 Summerside: 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; Summerside’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: Summerside 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.
Health Canada advises testing every home, Summerside’s included, whatever the area’s figure.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Summerside
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Summerside; 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. |
In fire season, check CWFIS for danger and active fires around Summerside, and listen to local authorities for orders.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Summerside’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Summerside | Low | $0.030 | 3.5% | Yes |
| Miscouche 1,113 · 6.3 km | Low | $0.036 | 3.5% | Yes |
| Kensington, Part 1 3,357 · 11 km | Low | $0.029 | 3.5% | Yes |
| Kensington 2,016 · 12 km | Low | $0.032 | 3.5% | Yes |
| Kinkora 1,416 · 14 km | Low | $0.027 | 3.5% | Yes |
| Malpeque Bay 1,351 · 15 km | Low | $0.027 | 3.5% | Yes |
| Wellington 1,972 · 18 km | Low | $0.031 | 3.5% | Yes |
Miscouche (low) has the heaviest fire record of Summerside’s neighbours, and Summerside (low) matches or beats it.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Summerside faces
Practical steps for Summerside’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 Summerside, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Summerside’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Summerside is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- 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 Summerside.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Summerside
Is radon a problem in Summerside?
3.5% of the 113 homes Health Canada tested around Summerside topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
How is Summerside’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Summerside A−, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
How big is the earthquake risk in Summerside?
Expected earthquake damage in Summerside comes to $0.030 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
Does Summerside flood?
There is flood mapping for Summerside on the national inventory, each study linked to its owner’s map, none of them graded.
Is Summerside at risk of wildfire?
Hardly at all on record: 0% of the land within 25 km of Summerside since 1986, a low band, though small grass fires aren’t mapped.
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).