Photo: Mario Hains · CC BY-SA 3.0Windsor is on Canada’s flood inventory: 1 listed, led by Gouvernement du Québec
For Windsor, wildfire history is close to nil: 0% of nearby land since 1986, 0.000% a year. Seismic risk in Windsor sits near the middle: $0.044 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. In Health Canada’s survey, 7.3% of homes tested in Windsor’s area exceeded 200 Bq/m³, close to the typical 6.6%. Windsor grades B for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Windsor’s hazards
For Windsor, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Windsor faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Windsor grades B for hazard risk
The grade weighs Windsor’s seismic risk and radon equally, and wildfire is one-sided: a high band counts against a town, a low one earns nothing.
Its place: #67 of 507 in Quebec and #1,456 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: The seismic figure is a long-run average from NRCan’s model, not a prediction. Only 55 homes were tested in the survey area, so the radon share is rough. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Wildfire is rare near Windsor: 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Past fire around Windsor’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
Next to the typical Canadian town (0.000% a year), Windsor’s 0.000% is in the low band.
Windsor’s homes have had no fire within 5 km since 1986; the closest was 7.4 km away.
About as much forest grows next to Windsor’s homes (30% within 5 km) as across 25 km (34%).
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 in Quebec · highest of 513
Of the 513 towns in Quebec, 144 have a burn rate that rounds to zero, Windsor among them; Mistissini leads at 0.31% a year.
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%), Windsor 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.
Gouvernement du Québec has mapped flooding for Windsor (1 study)
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Windsor: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
One study on the inventory touches Windsor, Gouvernement du Québec’s from 1981, and its area can be large, so it says a map exists, not that the town floods.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Richmond-Lennoxville | Gouvernement du Québec | 1981 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Flood maps are thinner in Quebec, 45% of towns against 58% nationally, but Windsor has one.
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 Windsor.
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 Windsor $0.044 per $1,000 a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
With $0.044 of shaking damage a year per $1,000, Windsor is about even with the typical $0.030 (1.5 times).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
The typical town in Quebec expects $0.14 a year in shaking damage; Windsor expects less, $0.044, and La Pocatière the most, $0.48.
NRCan seismic risk model (2022): mean yearly building loss per $1,000 of value; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
32% of Canada’s 2,611 towns expect more shaking damage than Windsor, which places it in the upper third.
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 Windsor.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
Some radon around Windsor: 7.3% of area homes over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
Near the middle for radon: Windsor’s area 7.3%, the typical Canadian town 6.6%. For radon tests, the only official count covers all of the Estrie health region, Windsor included.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Around Windsor, 7.3% of tests topped the guideline, about the same as the typical town in Quebec (8.2%).
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
26% of Canada’s 2,611 towns have more homes over 200 Bq/m³ than Windsor’s 5–10% 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.
Radon varies from house to house in Windsor, so the survey is a reason to test, not a result for yours.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Windsor
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Windsor; 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 Windsor 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 Windsor’s neighbours compare on hazards
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Windsor | Low | $0.044 | 7.3% | Yes |
| Val-Joli 1,787 · 4.3 km | Low | $0.053 | 7.3% | Yes |
| Saint-François-Xavier-de-Brompton 2,650 · 5.0 km | Low | $0.047 | 7.3% | Yes |
| Saint-Claude 1,167 · 7.2 km | Low | $0.056 | 7.3% | None listed |
| Melbourne 1,128 · 14 km | Low | $0.043 | 7.3% | Yes |
| Saint-Denis-de-Brompton 5,249 · 15 km | Low | $0.047 | 7.3% | Yes |
| Richmond 3,419 · 15 km | Low | $0.056 | 7.3% | Yes |
Nowhere around Windsor burns more: Val-Joli, 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 Windsor faces
What to do about the hazards Windsor 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. For Windsor, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. Flood studies cover areas of every size, which is why the page lists them for Windsor without grading them.
- 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 Windsor until then.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Windsor’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
Questions about flooding and hazards in Windsor
How big is the earthquake risk in Windsor?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Windsor $0.044 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
Is radon a problem in Windsor?
Around Windsor, 55 survey homes were tested and 7.3% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
How is Windsor’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Windsor grades B for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
Does Windsor flood?
A flood study covers Windsor on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory; open the owner’s map to check a street, since flood isn’t graded.
Is Windsor at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 0% of the land around Windsor since 1986 (last in 2015); at low, it neither helps nor hurts the grade.
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).