Photo: Canadian2006 · CC BY-SA 4.0Moose Jaw is on Canada’s flood inventory: 2 listed, led by Water Security Agency
Around Moose Jaw, wildfire is practically absent from the record: 0% within 25 km since 1986, 0.000% a year. Earthquakes matter little: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.010 a year per $1,000 of value, against $0.030 for the typical town. Radon is higher than usual: 13% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town. Moose Jaw grades B for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Moose Jaw’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Moose Jaw: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Moose Jaw faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Moose Jaw: B
Earthquake risk and radon make Moose Jaw’s grade; wildfire can only lower it, never raise it, and flood studies are listed but not scored.
Its place: #60 of 104 in Saskatchewan and #1,419 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
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.
Few fires near Moose Jaw: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Past fire around Moose Jaw’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
With 0.000% burned a year, Moose Jaw is among the many low-band places (the typical Canadian town 0.000%).
The 5 km ring around Moose Jaw’s homes is clear of burns since 1986, the nearest 24 km out.
Forest makes up 0% of the land within 5 km of Moose Jaw and 0% within 25 km, little for a forest fire to run through.
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 104
Little or nothing burns around Moose Jaw in a typical year; 54 of the 104 towns in Saskatchewan share that, and La Loche leads 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 Moose Jaw 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.
Moose Jaw is on the flood map inventory: 2 studies, latest by Water Security Agency
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Moose Jaw: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
Water Security Agency and others have studied flooding in areas that include Moose Jaw: 2 studies, the latest from 2020.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Moose Jaw | Water Security Agency | 2020 | under review · not public |
| Moose Jaw | Water Security Agency | 1979 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Its flood study sets Moose Jaw apart in Saskatchewan, where 55% of towns have one (Canada: 58%).
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
No single decade dominates: 2 studies for Moose Jaw between the 1970s and the 2020s.
Study dates as the NRCan inventory lists them, one count per study touching Moose Jaw.
Flood is shown here, never graded: a study says where a map exists, not how many of Moose Jaw’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.”
Natural Resources Canada, Canada Flood Map Inventory; links go to each study’s owner.
Low seismic risk in Moose Jaw: $0.010 per $1,000 of buildings a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
At $0.010 per $1,000, Moose Jaw carries 0.3 times the typical Canadian town’s earthquake risk ($0.030): low.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
At $0.010, Moose Jaw is above the typical town in Saskatchewan ($0.006); Weyburn has the most 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.
Moose Jaw is in the lower part of Canada’s range for earthquake risk; 86% of the 2,611 towns are higher.
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).
The model counts damage to Moose Jaw’s buildings and their occupants from shaking only: not liquefaction, landslides, tsunami or fires after a quake.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
13% of homes tested around Moose Jaw are over the radon guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
Moose Jaw’s survey area reads 13% over the guideline, well past the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%. Behind radon tests sits data gathered across the Five Hills RHA, with Moose Jaw one part of it.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
More homes top the guideline around Moose Jaw (13%) than in the typical town in Saskatchewan (9.1%); 0.8% went over 600.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
More high tests than most: Moose Jaw sits in a band that only 22% of Canada’s 2,611 towns share, with 4.6% above.
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.
A survey sample isn’t a map: any home in Moose Jaw can be high, and a three-month test is the only way to know.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Moose Jaw
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Moose Jaw; 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 Moose Jaw, 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)
Hazards in the places around Moose Jaw
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Moose Jaw | Low | $0.010 | 13% | Yes |
| Moose Jaw No. 161 1,293 · 5.9 km | Low | $0.011 | 13% | Yes |
Moose Jaw No. 161 (low) has the heaviest fire record of Moose Jaw’s neighbours, and Moose Jaw (low) matches or beats it.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Moose Jaw faces
Practical steps for Moose Jaw’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?
- Check the address on the flood map.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Moose Jaw takes its 2007 health region’s share.
- 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 Moose Jaw’s.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Moose Jaw’s homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. The flood inventory points to maps; it is incomplete and not the official source, so ask the municipality about any street in Moose Jaw.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Moose Jaw
Does Moose Jaw flood?
The inventory lists a study touching Moose Jaw; whether a given street floods is on that map, not in the grade.
How is Moose Jaw’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Moose Jaw’s Hazard risk grade is B, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
Is Moose Jaw at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Moose Jaw’s band is low, with 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (last in 2023), so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
How big is the earthquake risk in Moose Jaw?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Moose Jaw $0.010 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
Is radon a problem in Moose Jaw?
13% of the 118 homes Health Canada tested around Moose Jaw 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).