Photo: Qyd · CC BY-SA 3.0Radon is Shaunavon’s main hazard: 26% of tested homes in its area top Health Canada’s guideline
The burned-area map is nearly blank around Shaunavon, 0% within 25 km since 1986, 0.000% a year. Shaking is less of a worry than in most places, at $0.005 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). Shaunavon grades B for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Shaunavon’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Shaunavon: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Shaunavon faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Shaunavon: B
For Shaunavon, Risk will be the average of earthquakes and radon, with wildfire added only if it makes the average worse.
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.
Little of the land around Shaunavon has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km since 1986
Past fire around Shaunavon’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
With 0.000% burned a year, Shaunavon is among the many low-band places (the typical Canadian town 0.000%).
Little near Shaunavon’s homes can carry a forest fire; only 0% of the land within 5 km is forest fuel, and 0% 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
Little or nothing burns around Shaunavon in a typical year; 55 of the 105 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.
92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns are in the low band and 7.5% above it; Shaunavon is among the many where the yearly burn rate rounds to zero.
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 Shaunavon
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Shaunavon: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
There is no study for Shaunavon on the national flood inventory, which is far from complete.
Towns with a flood study on file
No study touches Shaunavon; in Saskatchewan, 55% of towns have one, below Canada’s 58%.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Nothing here counts toward Risk; the studies are pointers to the maps their owners keep for Shaunavon.
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 Shaunavon: $0.005 per $1,000 of buildings a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Shaking costs the typical town $0.030 a year; in Shaunavon it is only $0.005, 0.2 times as much.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Neither high nor low in Saskatchewan: Shaunavon’s $0.005 sits by the median of $0.006, while Weyburn reaches $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 (96%) expects more shaking damage than Shaunavon.
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 Shaunavon’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).
26% of homes tested around Shaunavon are over the radon guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
Shaunavon’s area, at 26%, is above the 6.6% of the typical Canadian town, so testing is worth more here than most places. For radon tests, the only official count covers all of the Cypress RHA, Shaunavon included.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
More homes top the guideline around Shaunavon (26%) than in the typical town in Saskatchewan (9.1%); 1.9% went over 600.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Shaunavon is in the 20–30% band, which holds only 3.1% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 1.5% 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.
One home in Shaunavon can be high while next door is low; a three-month test settles it.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Shaunavon
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Shaunavon; 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 Shaunavon 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 Shaunavon faces
Practical steps for Shaunavon’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?
- Ask the municipality for flood maps.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Shaunavon’s figure is its subdivision’s.
- 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 Shaunavon.
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Shaunavon’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Shaunavon takes its 2007 health region’s share.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Shaunavon
Is Shaunavon at risk of wildfire?
Hardly at all on record: 0% of the land within 25 km of Shaunavon since 1986, a low band, though small grass fires aren’t mapped.
How is Shaunavon’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Shaunavon B, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Does Shaunavon flood?
The inventory has 0 studies for Shaunavon, and an empty list isn’t a clean bill: the municipality holds any flood maps.
How big is the earthquake risk in Shaunavon?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Shaunavon $0.005 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
Is radon a problem in Shaunavon?
The area’s survey found 26% of 106 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Shaunavon.
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).