Few places are as safe from hazards as Duck Lake No. 463: it beats 93% of Canadian towns
The burn rate around Duck Lake No. 463 is 0.19% a year (7.1% of the land within 25 km since 1986), a moderate band. Seismic risk runs low: $0.005 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Radon is about average around Duck Lake No. 463: 7.4% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town. Duck Lake No. 463 grades A for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Duck Lake No. 463’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Duck Lake No. 463: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Duck Lake No. 463 faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Duck Lake No. 463 grades A for hazard risk
Earthquake risk and radon make Duck Lake No. 463’s grade; wildfire can only lower it, never raise it, and flood studies are listed but not scored.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Some fire around Duck Lake No. 463: 7.1% of the land within 25 km since 1986, 24% within 5 km
Past fire around Duck Lake No. 463’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
At 0.19% of the land a year, Duck Lake No. 463’s burn rate is moderate; the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%.
About as much forest grows next to Duck Lake No. 463’s homes (11% within 5 km) as across 25 km (9.2%).
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
Duck Lake No. 463 ranks 6th of the 105 towns in Saskatchewan for burn rate, at 0.19% a year; La Loche leads with 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.
Duck Lake No. 463 is in the moderate band, which holds 5.4% of Canada’s 2,610 towns; 2.1% 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.
No flood study is listed for Duck Lake No. 463
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Duck Lake No. 463: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
Nationally, Duck Lake No. 463 has no listed flood study; the municipality is the place to ask.
Towns with a flood study on file
Mapping in Saskatchewan reaches 55% of towns, below the 58% across Canada, and not Duck Lake No. 463.
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 Duck Lake No. 463’s 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.”
Low seismic risk in Duck Lake No. 463: $0.005 per $1,000 of buildings a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
At $0.005 per $1,000, Duck Lake No. 463 carries 0.2 times the typical Canadian town’s earthquake risk ($0.030): low.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Duck Lake No. 463’s $0.005 is close to the median in Saskatchewan, $0.006; Weyburn is 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.
Duck Lake No. 463 is among Canada’s quietest towns for earthquakes: 96% 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).
Roads, pipes and bridges aren’t in Duck Lake No. 463’s figure, nor landslides or tsunami: it is buildings and shaking.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
7.4% of homes tested around Duck Lake No. 463 are over the radon guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline. · Measured across the Prince Albert Parkland RHA: radon tests
Duck Lake No. 463’s area sits close to the typical Canadian town: 7.4% over the guideline, against 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Around Duck Lake No. 463, 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.
Between 5% and 10% of tests over the guideline: Duck Lake No. 463, and 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 26% 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.
Basements, soil and how a house is sealed decide its radon, so in Duck Lake No. 463 only a test can say.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Duck Lake No. 463
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Duck Lake No. 463; 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. |
For fires near Duck Lake No. 463, the national fire information system maps danger and active fires daily; local authorities give any evacuation order.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Get ready for what Duck Lake No. 463 faces
Practical steps for Duck Lake No. 463’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
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Duck Lake No. 463 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 Duck Lake No. 463.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Duck Lake No. 463’s homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Shaking damage is modelled from the ground, the buildings and the odds of each quake, and published for whole subdivisions such as Duck Lake No. 463’s.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Duck Lake No. 463
Does Duck Lake No. 463 flood?
No study on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory covers Duck Lake No. 463 (0), which doesn’t mean it has never been mapped, so ask the municipality.
How is Duck Lake No. 463’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Duck Lake No. 463’s Hazard risk grade is A, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
How big is the earthquake risk in Duck Lake No. 463?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Duck Lake No. 463 $0.005 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
Is Duck Lake No. 463 at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Duck Lake No. 463’s band is moderate, with 7.1% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (last in 2024), so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
Is radon a problem in Duck Lake No. 463?
7.4% of the 108 homes Health Canada tested around Duck Lake No. 463 topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
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).