Canada — Natural Disaster Report
North America · Live status: Elevated (52 active events)
Current situation: 52 natural disaster events are currently monitored in Canada, with a worst severity of Moderate. Details, sources and timestamps are listed below.
Canada's hazards reflect its size and northern latitude. British Columbia sits above the Cascadia subduction zone, capable of a magnitude 9 earthquake and a Pacific tsunami, and its coast and interior face increasingly extreme wildfire seasons — 2023 was the worst on record, burning an unprecedented area and sending smoke across North America and Europe. The 2021 heat dome pushed temperatures above 49°C in British Columbia and killed hundreds. Prairie provinces face flooding, drought and tornadoes; the Atlantic coast faces post-tropical storms such as Fiona in 2022; and ice storms, like the 1998 event in Quebec and Ontario, can collapse power grids for weeks.
Live map — Canada
Loading live data… · Marker positions are approximate; severity is labelled in each popup. Sources: USGS, GDACS, NASA EONET, NOAA/NWS, EMSC.
Active alerts & recent events
Latest earthquakes
Near a particular city? Earthquake history near a place · disasters reported near a place · compare Canada's earthquake record with another country.
By hazard in Canada
Each of these has its own page: recent activity, the season it happens in, past events and what to do.
- Cold Waves in Canada
- Earthquakes in Canada
- Extreme Weather in Canada
- Floods in Canada
- Heavy Rains in Canada
- Other Hazards in Canada
- Severe Storms in Canada
- Storm Surges in Canada
- Tornadoes in Canada
- Wildfires in Canada
Risk profile
Wildfires May-September, most severe in the west and boreal forest. Spring flooding from snowmelt and ice jams, April-June. Earthquakes on the west coast, year-round. Tornadoes in Ontario and the Prairies, June-August. Ice storms and blizzards, December-March. Post-tropical storms in the Atlantic, September-October.
Official emergency authorities
Disaster displacement in Canada
72,092 internal displacements
Largest single event: 32,700 from wildfire, beginning 1 January 2025.
A displacement is a movement, not a person: somebody forced from home more than once in a year is counted more than once. These are movements caused by disasters only — displacement caused by conflict is counted separately and is not included here.
| Year | Displacements |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 72,092 |
| 2024 | 45,234 |
Source: Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC), Global Internal Displacement Database. IDMC publishes annually, so the latest year here is the latest they have finalised — not the current one.
River flood forecast — Canada
No chance of exceeding even its 2-year flood flow in this forecast.
GloFAS alert level: Inactive · Peak expected: as currently ongoing · forecast of 19 Oct 2026
No chance of exceeding even its 2-year flood flow in this forecast.
GloFAS alert level: Inactive · Peak expected: as currently ongoing · forecast of 19 Oct 2026
No chance of exceeding even its 2-year flood flow in this forecast.
GloFAS alert level: Inactive · Peak expected: as currently ongoing · forecast of 19 Oct 2026
No chance of exceeding even its 2-year flood flow in this forecast.
GloFAS alert level: Inactive · Peak expected: as currently ongoing · forecast of 19 Oct 2026
No chance of exceeding even its 2-year flood flow in this forecast.
GloFAS alert level: Inactive · Peak expected: as currently ongoing · forecast of 19 Oct 2026
No chance of exceeding even its 2-year flood flow in this forecast.
GloFAS alert level: Inactive · Peak expected: as currently ongoing · forecast of 19 Oct 2026
No chance of exceeding even its 2-year flood flow in this forecast.
GloFAS alert level: Inactive · Peak expected: in 11-14 days (on 2026-11-01) · forecast of 19 Oct 2026
GloFAS forecasts are computer model output, published for information only. They are not a flood warning: only national and regional authorities issue flood warnings for their own area. A reporting point is a place on the model's river network, which may sit a few kilometres from the town it is named after. All 259 rivers →
What this site sees in Canada
| Source | Events here, last 12 months | What it will not tell you |
|---|---|---|
| WMO Alert Hub (national weather services) | 1,454 | Each warning comes from one country own alerting authority, so the scale is that agency scale and is not comparable between countries. Many agencies publish no coordinates, and those warnings are placed at the centre of the country rather than where the weather is - the area name is the real answer. |
| NASA FIRMS | 20 | Global, but it sees only what the satellite saw on its pass, and thick cloud hides fire. A quiet day here is not evidence that nothing burned. |
| US Geological Survey | 9 | Global for earthquakes above roughly M4.5, and denser where there are more seismometers. It publishes nothing about any other hazard. |
| European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre | 8 | Global for earthquakes, with the best coverage in Europe and the Mediterranean. It publishes nothing about any other hazard. |
| GDACS (European Commission / United Nations) | 1 | Global, but deliberately selective: it alerts on disasters likely to need INTERNATIONAL response. Serious local flooding that a national agency handles alone will not appear here. |
| NASA EONET | none | Global and curated rather than automatic, so it is slower than the raw feeds and carries far fewer events. |
| MeteoAlarm (EUMETNET) | none | Europe only. It publishes no coordinates at all, so every warning here is placed at the centre of its country and the area name is the only reliable indication of where it applies. |
| NOAA Tsunami Warning Centers | none | These two centres warn for the US and Canadian coasts and for the Pacific and Caribbean basins. The Indian Ocean and Mediterranean have their own warning centres, which are not read here. Their routine information statements - the ones that say there is NO tsunami danger - are deliberately not imported, so an empty tsunami list means no threat was issued, not that nothing was checked. |
| NOAA National Hurricane Center | none | The Atlantic and the eastern and central Pacific only. No typhoon in the western Pacific and no cyclone in the Indian Ocean or the southern hemisphere appears here; those come from GDACS and from national services. |
| ReliefWeb (UN OCHA) | none | Global, but it reports on humanitarian RESPONSE. It arrives days after an event rather than during it, and never functions as a warning. |
Not applicable here: US National Weather Service — Covers the United States only. It publishes nothing about any other country, so its absence from a country page is not an outage. ; USGS Volcano Hazards Program — United States volcanoes only - Alaska, Hawaii, the Cascades, Yellowstone, California and the Northern Mariana Islands. It says nothing about Indonesia, Iceland, Italy or anywhere else, so its silence about a foreign eruption is not a judgement about that eruption.
Satellite before and after — Canada
- Quebec wildfires 2023: burn scars in the boreal forest · NASA images from 28 May 2023 and 5 Sep 2023
- Jasper wildfire 2024: the burn scar in Jasper National Park · NASA images from 10 Jul 2024 and 1 Sep 2024
Frequently asked questions
What natural disasters are currently active in Canada?
There are currently 52 monitored natural disaster events in Canada. The overall risk status is Elevated. See the live list on this page for details and sources.
What natural hazards does Canada face?
Canada's hazards reflect its size and northern latitude. British Columbia sits above the Cascadia subduction zone, capable of a magnitude 9 earthquake and a Pacific tsunami, and its coast and interior face increasingly extreme wildfire seasons — 2023 was the worst on record, burning an unprecedented area and sending smoke across North America and Europe.
When is the main natural disaster season in Canada?
Wildfires May-September, most severe in the west and boreal forest. Spring flooding from snowmelt and ice jams, April-June. Earthquakes on the west coast, year-round. Tornadoes in Ontario and the Prairies, June-August. Ice storms and blizzards, December-March. Post-tropical storms in the Atlantic, September-October. Seasons shift from year to year; treat these as the usual pattern, not a forecast.
Which official agency issues disaster warnings in Canada?
Official warnings for Canada are issued by Environment Canada weather alerts and Natural Resources Canada — Earthquakes. Links to each are on this page. This site aggregates and reports; it does not issue warnings, and in an emergency the national agency is the authority.
Where does this disaster data for Canada come from?
Data is aggregated from official sources including USGS, GDACS (EC/UN), NASA EONET, ReliefWeb and national agencies. Every event links to its original source, and update times are shown on each record.
Data sources: USGS, GDACS (EC/UN), NASA EONET, NOAA/NWS, EMSC, ReliefWeb (UN OCHA). See data sources & attribution and methodology. This page does not replace official emergency guidance.