Photo: Canadian2006 · CC BY-SA 3.025% of homes tested in Balgonie’s area are above the radon guideline
Fire has left almost no mark near Balgonie: 0% of the land within 25 km since 1986, 0.000% a year. Seismic risk runs low: $0.011 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Hazard risk gives Balgonie a grade of C+, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Balgonie’s hazards
For Balgonie, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Balgonie faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Balgonie: C+
Seismic risk and radon set Balgonie’s 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.
Few fires near Balgonie: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Past fire around Balgonie’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
The yearly burn rate around Balgonie is 0.000%, low beside 0.000% for the typical Canadian town.
Around Balgonie the forest is thin or far off: 0% of the land within 5 km and 0% within 25 km is forest fuel.
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 Saskatchewan · highest of 105
Fire has taken almost none of the land around Balgonie, as for 55 of the 105 towns in Saskatchewan; La Loche tops the list at 1.94%.
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.
The low band holds 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns, and Balgonie sits at its very bottom; only 7.5% are above it.
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.
The flood map inventory lists nothing for Balgonie
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Balgonie: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
NRCan’s inventory is silent on Balgonie, so any flood map would be the municipality’s own.
Towns with a flood study on file
Flood maps are thinner in Saskatchewan, 55% of towns against 58% nationally, and Balgonie has none.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Listed, not scored: a flood study proves a map exists, not that Balgonie floods.
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.”
Earthquakes cost buildings in Balgonie just $0.011 per $1,000 a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
At $0.011 per $1,000, Balgonie carries 0.4 times the typical Canadian town’s earthquake risk ($0.030): low.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Above the middle in Saskatchewan: Balgonie’s $0.011 against a median of $0.006, with Weyburn highest at $0.033.
NRCan seismic risk model (2022): mean yearly building loss per $1,000 of value; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Earthquakes cost less around Balgonie than in 85% of Canada’s 2,611 towns.
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 Balgonie.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
Test for radon in Balgonie: 25% of area homes were over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline. · Radon tests for the Regina Qu'Appelle RHA
At 25% over the guideline, the area around Balgonie beats the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Radon runs higher around Balgonie than in most towns in Saskatchewan: 25% over the guideline (9.1% is typical), 4.3% over 600.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Balgonie is in the 20–30% band, which holds only 3.1% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 1.5% are 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.
Whatever Balgonie’s area share, the reading that matters is your own home’s, over a winter.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Balgonie
Alerts for Balgonie 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. |
Evacuation orders for Balgonie come from the municipality or the province, while CWFIS maps fire danger every day.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Balgonie
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Balgonie | Low | $0.011 | 25% | None listed |
| White City 4,379 · 8.6 km | Low | $0.012 | 25% | Yes |
| Edenwold No. 158 4,932 · 9.4 km | Low | $0.011 | 25% | Yes |
| Pilot Butte 3,255 · 10 km | Low | $0.010 | 25% | Yes |
| South Qu'Appelle No. 157 1,256 · 14 km | Low | $0.011 | 25% | None listed |
| Lajord No. 128 1,191 · 19 km | Low | $0.018 | 25% | None listed |
Edenwold No. 158 burns a little more than Balgonie, in the same low band (low here).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Balgonie faces
Practical steps for Balgonie’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?
- Ask the municipality for flood maps.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Balgonie’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
- Wildfire counts one way. For Balgonie, 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. 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 Balgonie floods.
- 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 Balgonie sits in.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Balgonie
Does Balgonie flood?
No study on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory covers Balgonie (0), which doesn’t mean it has never been mapped, so ask the municipality.
Is radon a problem in Balgonie?
25% of the 94 homes Health Canada tested around Balgonie topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
Is Balgonie at risk of wildfire?
No meaningful wildfire history near Balgonie: 0% of nearby land since 1986, band low.
How big is the earthquake risk in Balgonie?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Balgonie $0.011 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
How is Balgonie’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Balgonie grades C+ for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers 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).