Yes, and more than most places that call themselves a town rather than a floodplain. About half of Weston-super-Mare sits in the highest river-and-sea flood zone. A smaller slice sits one band down. This is a settlement built on a tidal flat behind a sea wall, and the water was here first. Flooding is not a footnote to living here. It is the single biggest thing to check before you buy.
The river and sea risk is where the numbers land hardest. Roughly half the area falls inside the top flood zone, the one that carries the highest yearly chance of flooding from the Bristol Channel and the rivers behind it. A further small share, around one in twenty-five, sits in the middle zone. Those are not fringe streets down by the beach. That much land in the worst category means the risk reaches well inland from the front.
Recorded past floods cover under two percent of the area, which reads better than it is. That figure is the sea defences doing their job, not the risk staying politely away, and defences are a promise rather than a guarantee.
Rainfall adds its own layer on top of the tides. Around one postcode in thirteen carries a high flood risk, roughly one in six a medium risk, and getting on for half the town some lower level of risk when the drains are asked to cope with a heavy day. Low risk is not no risk, and on flat ground water does not find the sea on its own.
The forward look is worse, not better. Once climate projections are folded in, about a fifth of the area shifts into a higher flood-risk band than it sits in today. That is the difference between a home that is fine now and a home that becomes a problem for whoever owns it in thirty years, and the plan for this stretch of coast is to hold the defence line rather than retreat from it.
All of this shows up on the insurance quote before it shows up in your hallway. A property in the top zone can cost more to cover, can carry a heavy excess on flood claims, and can be slow to insure at all if the address has a history. None of that is a reason to walk away by itself, but it is a reason to get a real quote for the exact address rather than a postcode average before you sign anything.
The verdict is plain. Weston-super-Mare carries about as much flood risk as an English town can carry, and no amount of sea wall or sunshine changes what the maps say. Buy here with your eyes open, your survey thorough, and your flood search read twice.