Photo: Kayoty · CC BY-SA 3.0Hazard risk in Buffalo Narrows is higher than in almost every Canadian town
Wildfire is Buffalo Narrows’ dominant hazard: 42% of the land within 25 km has burned since 1986, 1.08% a year. Seismic risk runs low: $0.003 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. In Health Canada’s survey, 14% of homes tested in the area exceeded 200 Bq/m³ (6.6% typical). Buffalo Narrows grades D− for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Buffalo Narrows’s hazards
For Buffalo Narrows, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Buffalo Narrows faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Buffalo Narrows: D−
Risk averages earthquakes and radon; wildfire joins only where it pulls the average down, so a town like Buffalo Narrows with little fire nearby would get no credit for 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.
A very high wildfire band for Buffalo Narrows: 1.5% within 5 km, 42% within 25 km
Past fire around Buffalo Narrows’ homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
The yearly burn rate around Buffalo Narrows is 1.08%, against 0.000% for the typical Canadian town: the very high band.
Forest fuel is denser close to Buffalo Narrows (59% within 5 km) than further out (43% 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 in Saskatchewan · highest of 105
La Loche burns fastest in Saskatchewan at 1.94% a year; Buffalo Narrows, at 1.08%, ranks 3rd of 105.
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.
Few places in Canada burn like the land around Buffalo Narrows: the very high band holds 0.2% of the 2,610 towns.
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.
Water Security Agency has mapped flooding for Buffalo Narrows (1 study)
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Buffalo Narrows: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
The flood study touching Buffalo Narrows is Water Security Agency’s, dated 1990; its own map shows the zones street by street.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buffalo Narrows | Water Security Agency | 1990 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Flood maps are thinner in Saskatchewan, 55% of towns against 58% nationally, but Buffalo Narrows has one.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Flood is shown here, never graded: a study says where a map exists, not how many of Buffalo Narrows’ homes stand in a flood zone.
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.
Low seismic risk in Buffalo Narrows: $0.003 per $1,000 of buildings a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Buffalo Narrows’ $0.003 is a fraction of the typical town’s $0.030 (0.1 times as much): quiet ground by Canadian standards.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
The typical town in Saskatchewan expects $0.006 a year in shaking damage; Buffalo Narrows expects less, $0.003, and Weyburn the most, $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.
Nearly every one of Canada’s 2,611 towns (99%) expects more shaking damage than Buffalo Narrows.
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 Buffalo Narrows.
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 Buffalo Narrows: 14% of area homes were over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline. · Area-wide: radon tests, counted over the Mamawetan/Keewatin/Athabasca health region
More homes than usual test high around Buffalo Narrows: 14% against 6.6% for the typical Canadian town.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Around Buffalo Narrows, 14% of tests were over 200 Bq/m³ and 1.2% over 600, against a median of 9.1% in Saskatchewan.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
One test in ten or more tops the guideline around Buffalo Narrows, as in 22% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 4.6% go 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.
Neighbouring homes in Buffalo Narrows can differ a lot; only a long-term test tells you about yours.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Buffalo Narrows
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Buffalo Narrows; 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 Buffalo Narrows come through Environment Canada and Alert Ready; the fire map is CWFIS’s.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Get ready for what Buffalo Narrows faces
What to do about the hazards Buffalo Narrows faces, and what to ask before you buy.
- Clear needles and wood nearby.
- Keep a grab-and-go bag ready.
- In smoke, stay in; filter air.
- 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.
- Has it had a radon test?
- Check the address on the flood map.
- How close is the forest edge?
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- 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 Buffalo Narrows until then.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Buffalo Narrows’ census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. Flood studies cover areas of every size, which is why the page lists them for Buffalo Narrows without grading them.
- Wildfire counts one way. For Buffalo Narrows, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Buffalo Narrows
Is radon a problem in Buffalo Narrows?
In Health Canada’s survey, 14% of 166 homes tested in Buffalo Narrows’ area were above 200 Bq/m³, though only a test tells you about one house.
Does Buffalo Narrows flood?
A flood study covers Buffalo Narrows on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory; open the owner’s map to check a street, since flood isn’t graded.
How is Buffalo Narrows’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Buffalo Narrows D−, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
How big is the earthquake risk in Buffalo Narrows?
In NRCan’s seismic model, Buffalo Narrows’ buildings lose $0.003 per $1,000 of value in an average year.
Is Buffalo Narrows at risk of wildfire?
Yes, by Canadian standards: Buffalo Narrows’ band is very high, with 42% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (last in 2025), so wildfire counts against its Risk 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).