Photo: Julia Adamson SriMesh talk · CC BY-SA 2.5Hazard risk in Lawson Heights is lower than in 91% of Canadian towns
Since 1986 almost nothing has burned near Lawson Heights: 0% of the land within 25 km, or 0.000% a year. Earthquakes matter little: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.006 a year per $1,000 of value, against $0.030 for the typical town. About as many homes carry radon around Lawson Heights as elsewhere, 6.6% over the guideline where the typical town has 6.6%. Hazard risk gives Lawson Heights a grade of A, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Lawson Heights’s hazards
For Lawson Heights, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Lawson Heights faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Lawson Heights grades A for hazard risk
Earthquake risk and radon make Lawson Heights’ grade; wildfire can only lower it, never raise it, and flood studies are listed but not scored.
Its place: #9 of 104 in Saskatchewan and #299 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. The radon share rests on 76 home tests in the survey area, so a few homes move it. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Wildfire is rare near Lawson Heights: 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Lawson Heights’ residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Forty years of fire maps put Lawson Heights at 0.000% a year, low next to the typical Canadian town’s 0.000%.
Around Lawson Heights the forest is thin or far off: 0.1% 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 104
Among the 104 towns in Saskatchewan, La Loche burns fastest (1.94% a year); Lawson Heights is with the 54 near zero.
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.
Only 7.5% of Canada’s 2,610 towns are above the low band, which holds 92%; Lawson Heights, at a rounded zero, is far from them.
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.
A flood study covers Lawson Heights, from Water Security Agency: 1 on the inventory
Flood studies whose area touches Lawson Heights, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
One study on the inventory touches Lawson Heights, Water Security Agency’s from 2024, and its area can be large, so it says a map exists, not that the town floods.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| City of Saskatoon Flood Mapping Study | Water Security Agency | 2024 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Lawson Heights is one of the 55% of towns in Saskatchewan with a flood study on file, fewer than Canada’s 58%.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
The grade leaves flood out, since a study area says nothing about how many of Lawson Heights’ homes are at risk.
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.
Little shaking expected in Lawson Heights: $0.006 a year per $1,000
NRCan’s seismic risk model: the damage shaking is expected to do to buildings each year, on average over many years.
At $0.006 per $1,000, Lawson Heights carries 0.2 times the typical Canadian town’s earthquake risk ($0.030): low.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Earthquake risk around Lawson Heights ($0.006) matches the middle in Saskatchewan ($0.006), far from Weyburn’s $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.
Lawson Heights is in the lower part of Canada’s range for earthquake risk; 88% 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).
For Lawson Heights 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). · Not measured by town: earthquake risk (the city of Saskatoon)
6.6% of homes tested around Lawson Heights are over the radon guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
The survey area of Lawson Heights reads 6.6%, a shade from the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%. Nobody publishes radon tests for Lawson Heights alone, so this card uses the figure for the Saskatoon RHA.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
The median in Saskatchewan is 9.1% over 200 Bq/m³; around Lawson Heights it is 6.6%.
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: Lawson Heights, 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.
Whatever Lawson Heights’ 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 Lawson Heights
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Lawson Heights; 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. |
In fire season, check CWFIS for danger and active fires around Lawson Heights, and listen to local authorities for orders.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Lawson Heights’ neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lawson Heights | Low | $0.006 | 6.6% | Yes |
| Lawson Heights Urban Centre 3,622 · 0.9 km | Low | $0.006 | 6.6% | Yes |
| Silverwood Heights 8,153 · 1.8 km | Low | $0.006 | 6.6% | Yes |
| North Park 5,000 · 1.9 km | Low | $0.006 | 6.6% | Yes |
| University 5,888 · 3.3 km | Low | $0.006 | 6.6% | Yes |
| City Park 3,827 · 3.5 km | Low | $0.006 | 6.6% | Yes |
| Mayfair 2,927 · 3.7 km | Low | $0.006 | 6.6% | None listed |
The fire record around City Park is a touch heavier than Lawson Heights’, but the band is the same: low (here low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Lawson Heights faces
Practical steps for Lawson Heights’ 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
- 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 Lawson Heights.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Lawson Heights is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Lawson Heights’ census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
- Wildfire counts one way. For Lawson Heights, 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 Lawson Heights
Is Lawson Heights at risk of wildfire?
The burned-area record shows next to nothing around Lawson Heights (0% within 25 km since 1986), so its band is low.
How is Lawson Heights’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Lawson Heights grades A for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
Is radon a problem in Lawson Heights?
6.6% of the 76 homes Health Canada tested around Lawson Heights topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
Does Lawson Heights flood?
There is flood mapping for Lawson Heights on the national inventory, each study linked to its owner’s map, none of them graded.
How big is the earthquake risk in Lawson Heights?
Expected earthquake damage in Lawson Heights comes to $0.006 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
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).