Photo: Kyla Duhamel from Saskatoon, Canada · CC BY 2.0On hazards, Candle Lake comes out behind 95% of Canadian towns
Wildfire is a real hazard for Candle Lake: 9.9% of the land within 25 km has burned since 1986, 0.25% a year, in the high band. Shaking is less of a worry than in most places, at $0.004 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). About as many homes carry radon around Candle Lake as elsewhere, 7.4% over the guideline where the typical town has 6.6%. Hazard risk gives Candle Lake a grade of D; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Candle Lake’s hazards
For Candle Lake, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Candle Lake faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Candle Lake grades D for hazard risk
Seismic risk and radon set Candle Lake’s grade, wildfire can drag it down, and flood mapping stays out of it.
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.
0% of the land near Candle Lake’s homes has burned since 1986, 9.9% within 25 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Candle Lake’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
The yearly burn rate around Candle Lake is 0.25%, against 0.000% for the typical Canadian town: the high band.
The 5 km ring around Candle Lake’s homes is clear of burns since 1986, the nearest 11 km out.
About as much forest grows next to Candle Lake’s homes (62% within 5 km) as across 25 km (64%).
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
The land around Candle Lake burns at 0.25% a year, the 4th highest rate of 105 towns in Saskatchewan; La Loche tops it 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.
High is rare: 1.9% of Canada’s 2,610 towns, Candle Lake among them, with 0.2% higher still.
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.
No flood study is listed for Candle Lake
Flood studies whose area touches Candle Lake, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
There is no study for Candle Lake on the national flood inventory, which is far from complete.
Towns with a flood study on file
Flood maps are thinner in Saskatchewan, 55% of towns against 58% nationally, and Candle Lake has none.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Flood studies don’t enter the grade; they are listed so you can open the official map for Candle Lake.
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 Candle Lake just $0.004 per $1,000 a year
NRCan’s seismic risk model: the damage shaking is expected to do to buildings each year, on average over many years.
Shaking costs the typical town $0.030 a year; in Candle Lake it is only $0.004, 0.1 times as much.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Earthquake risk in Saskatchewan peaks in Weyburn ($0.033); Candle Lake, at $0.004, is below the median of $0.006.
NRCan seismic risk model (2022): mean yearly building loss per $1,000 of value; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Candle Lake is among Canada’s quietest towns for earthquakes: 98% of the 2,611 expect more 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).
For Candle Lake the model prices shaking damage to buildings, nothing more.
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 Candle Lake: 7.4% of area homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
Around Candle Lake, 7.4% of tested homes topped the guideline, near the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%. Behind radon tests sits data gathered across the Prince Albert Parkland RHA, with Candle Lake one part of it.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Around Candle Lake, 7.4% of tests topped the guideline, about the same as the typical town in Saskatchewan (9.1%).
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns share Candle Lake’s band of 5 to 10%; 26% sit 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.
Health Canada advises testing every home, Candle Lake’s included, whatever the area’s figure.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Candle Lake
Alerts for Candle Lake 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. |
Fire danger and active fires near Candle Lake are mapped daily by the Canadian Wildland Fire Information System; evacuation orders come from the municipality or province.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Get ready for what Candle Lake faces
Practical steps for Candle Lake’s hazards, most pressing first.
- 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?
- Ask the municipality for flood maps.
- How close is the forest edge?
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Wildfire counts one way. Burned land within 25 km of where people live, averaged over 1986–2025 and checked for fuel near homes, is the measure; it looks back, not ahead, and only ever counts against Candle Lake.
- Earthquakes are modelled. The earthquake figure is an expected loss, not a forecast, worked out by NRCan for each census subdivision, Candle Lake’s included.
- 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 Candle Lake.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Candle Lake is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Candle Lake
Does Candle Lake flood?
The inventory has 0 studies for Candle Lake, and an empty list isn’t a clean bill: the municipality holds any flood maps.
How is Candle Lake’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Candle Lake D, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Is Candle Lake at risk of wildfire?
Wildfire is Candle Lake’s main hazard, band high: 9.9% of the land within 25 km burned between 1986 and 2025.
How big is the earthquake risk in Candle Lake?
Expected earthquake damage in Candle Lake comes to $0.004 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
Is radon a problem in Candle Lake?
The area’s survey found 7.4% of 108 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Candle Lake.
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).