Photo: MOTORAL1987 · CC BY-SA 3.0Rivers or the sea put 27% of Cleethorpes’s homes at high or medium flood risk, more than in 98% of UK towns
On the Environment Agency’s maps, which allow for flood defences, “high or medium” means at least a 1 in 100 chance of flooding from rivers or the sea in any year. Cleethorpes’s Hazard risk Grade is D−: #57 of 61 in Lincolnshire.
What stands out about Cleethorpes’s hazards
From the Environment Agency’s maps and records and the BGS radon atlas, below.
What Cleethorpes faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Rivers and the sea
Surface water
Past floods
The Buck Beck
Flood warnings
Radon
Cleethorpes grades D− for hazard risk
Flood risk from rivers and the sea, against all UK towns.
The share of homes at high or medium risk from rivers and the sea, ranked against every UK town of 1,000 or more: fewer homes at risk is better. Towns with none at high or medium risk are ordered by their share at low risk, so they don’t all share one score. Surface water and radon aren’t graded: they are described below.
Where the water goes in Cleethorpes
Turn layers on and off. Blue is the risk from rivers and the sea; pink is where heavy rain collects. Both allow for flood defences.
The river and sea risk follows the The Humber, the North Sea and the Butts Drain. Surface-water risk is patchier: dips, underpasses and small streams.
27% of Cleethorpes’s homes are at high or medium risk from rivers or the sea
The Environment Agency’s national map, allowing for defences. A further 11% are at low risk.
Share of each UK town’s homes at high or medium risk from rivers and the sea. 35% of UK towns have none; Cleethorpes has more than 98% of towns.
| # | Town | People | High or med. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Borehamwood Hertfordshire | 39,760 | 0% | |
| 2 | Chadderton Greater Manchester | 37,602 | 0% | |
| 3 | Sutton in Ashfield Nottinghamshire | 36,435 | 0% | |
| … | ||||
| 232 | Caversham Berkshire | 33,038 | 13% | |
| 233 | Staines-upon-Thames Surrey | 21,327 | 24% | |
| 234 | Cleethorpes Lincolnshire | 29,660 | 27% | |
| 235 | Egham Surrey | 28,003 | 29% | |
| 236 | Wisbech Cambridgeshire | 26,800 | 43% | |
| 237 | Spalding Lincolnshire | 30,552 | 84% | |
UK towns of 21,000 to 42,000 people.
The Environment Agency’s Risk of Flooding from Rivers and Sea (NaFRA2, June 2026) counts each postcode’s homes by band; the shares weight those postcodes by Census 2021 households. The EA counts include homes built since 2021.
Rivers and the sea, more than heavy rain, are Cleethorpes’s flood risk
Surface water is rain that falls faster than drains and the ground can take it. It is mapped separately from rivers and the sea, and it is not in the Hazard risk Grade.
About 5.3% of homes are at high risk of surface-water flooding (a 1 in 30 chance or more each year) and 6.4% at medium risk: roughly 1,620 households. A further 12% face a low risk from surface water. That is more than 94% of UK towns.
Our estimate: every address in the town (ONS NSUL) read on the Environment Agency’s Risk of Flooding from Surface Water map (NaFRA2, 2025), each postcode’s share weighted by its Census 2021 households. Neither agency publishes a count of homes for surface water, so treat it as a guide; one street can differ from the next.
Cleethorpes has flooded in 1 recorded year since 1953
Every flood the Environment Agency has mapped inside Cleethorpes’s built-up area, newest first. The record is fullest for big river floods; small and surface-water floods are often missing.
- 1953January 1953: The sea came in75 hectares inside today’s built-up area
Floodwater covered 75 hectares of what is now Cleethorpes in 1953, the largest flood the record holds here (January).
1,098 of Cleethorpes’s households today live inside the outline of a recorded flood.
The Buck Beck at Humberston: highest 3.21 m, in June 2007
The highest level each winter (October to September) at the Environment Agency’s Humberston gauge, since 1998. The river normally runs between 1.63 m and 2.32 m here.
- 31 August 20226.00 m
- 21 August 20236.00 m
- 15 June 20073.21 m
- 2 April 20183.20 m
- 9 August 20173.20 m
- 26 October 20193.18 m
The Buck Beck has topped its normal range on 948 days since 1998, most in the winters of 2004–05 and 2005–06. By its highest day, the winter of 2025–26 was the 19th-highest of the 25.
Environment Agency Hydrology API, Humberston (station E1017), daily maximum level; the record and normal range from the EA’s stage scale. Live river levels are on GOV.UK’s Check for flooding.
1 flood warning or alert is in force near Cleethorpes · 5 warnings in 20 years
The Environment Agency has 4 flood warning areas and 3 alert areas reaching into the town; warnings since the service began in 2006.
The warning area covering the most of Cleethorpes, Areas near Buck Beck in Cleethorpes and Humberston, has not had a flood warning since 2006. Of the 5 warnings, 3 were for Areas near to the sea defences in Cleethorpes and 1 for Wider area at risk of tidal flooding in the East of Grimsby and Cleethorpes.
2013 had the most warnings (4); 2007 the most alerts (11). The most recent warning was on 12 January 2017.
Show the 7 warning and alert areas
| Area | Kind | Since 2006 | Now |
|---|---|---|---|
| Areas near to the sea defences in Cleethorpes | Warning area | 3 | None |
| Wider area at risk of tidal flooding in Cleethorpes | Warning area | 1 | None |
| Wider area at risk of tidal flooding in the East of Grimsby and Cleethorpes | Warning area | 1 | None |
| Areas near Buck Beck in Cleethorpes and Humberston | Warning area | 0 | None |
| Humber tributaries | Alert area | 47 | None |
| Tidal flooding near the South Humber Bank from Barton Upon Humber to Humberston | Alert area | 23 | None |
| Far extent of Tidal flooding on the South Humber Bank | Alert area | 20 | None |
Environment Agency Historic Flood Warnings (first issues only, not updates; “flood watch” counted as an alert before 2011) and the real-time flood-monitoring API. Sign up for free warnings on GOV.UK or call Floodline, 0345 988 1188.
Cleethorpes is in the lowest radon band
Radon is a natural radioactive gas from the ground; long exposure raises the risk of lung cancer. The atlas gives the chance that a home in each 1 km square is above the UK action level (200 Bq/m³).
Every 1 km square over Cleethorpes is in the lowest band: fewer than 1 in 100 homes are expected to be above the action level.
BGS/UKHSA Indicative Atlas of Radon in Great Britain, version 3. Check an address at UKradon.org.
Flood risk in the places around Cleethorpes
Share of homes at high or medium and at low risk from rivers and the sea. Tap a town for its page.
| Town | People | High or medium | Low | Hazard |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cleethorpes | 29,660 | 27% | 11% | D− |
| Humberston and New Waltham | 14,861 | 4.7% | 4.3% | D |
| Grimsby | 85,915 | 8.9% | 16% | D |
| Holton le Clay | 3,823 | 0% | 0% | A |
| Waltham | 6,204 | under 0.1% | 0.6% | B |
| Tetney | 1,536 | 2.6% | 0.6% | C− |
| Healing | 3,201 | 0.4% | 0.5% | C+ |
| Laceby | 3,284 | 0.1% | 0% | B− |
Cleethorpes has more homes at high or medium risk than any neighbour in the table. Holton le Clay has none.
Get ready for what Cleethorpes faces
Free warnings, what to do in a cloudburst, and what to check before you move.
- Sign up free for Environment Agency flood warnings by text, call or email.
- Floodline: 0345 988 1188, 24 hours.
- Cleethorpes’s warning areas include Areas near to the sea defences in Cleethorpes and Wider area at risk of tidal flooding in the East of Grimsby and Cleethorpes.
- Surface water rises in minutes, often with no warning issued: stay out of underpasses and dips.
- Keep the gullies and drains outside your home clear of leaves.
- Report a blocked road drain to the council.
- Never walk or drive through floodwater: 30 cm of moving water can float a car.
- Move valuables, papers and medicines upstairs.
- Turn off gas, electricity and water if you’re told to.
- Check the address on GOV.UK’s long-term flood risk service: it gives rivers and sea and surface water separately.
- Ask whether the home has flooded or had a flood insurance claim; the TA6 property form asks the seller.
- Homes built before 2009 can get flood cover through Flood Re, the government-backed scheme; newer homes can’t.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Defences are counted. Both agencies’ maps allow for flood defences and the chance they are overtopped or fail, so a town behind a defence scheme can show few homes at high risk and many at low risk.
- Surface water is our estimate. Neither agency publishes a count of homes at risk from surface water, so we read each address on the map. A flat on a hill and a basement in a dip can share a postcode.
- Past floods are what was recorded. The flood outlines come from surveys, aerial photographs and reports; many small floods, and most surface-water floods, were never mapped.
- One town, many streets. Risk is street by street. Check a specific address on GOV.UK’s long-term flood risk service before you buy or rent.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Cleethorpes
Does Cleethorpes flood?
The last flood the Environment Agency recorded inside the town was in January 1953. 27% of homes are at high or medium risk from rivers and the sea on the Environment Agency’s maps, which allow for flood defences. About 12% of homes are at high or medium risk from surface water, when heavy rain overwhelms the drains. Cleethorpes grades D− for hazard risk against UK towns.
Which parts of Cleethorpes are at risk of flooding?
From rivers and the sea, the places the Environment Agency warns directly: Areas near to the sea defences in Cleethorpes, Wider area at risk of tidal flooding in the East of Grimsby and Cleethorpes, Wider area at risk of tidal flooding in Cleethorpes and Areas near Buck Beck in Cleethorpes and Humberston. Surface water can collect in low spots anywhere in the town. Check a specific address on GOV.UK’s long-term flood risk service.
When did Cleethorpes last flood?
The recorded flood outlines inside the town run from 1953 to 1953 (1 years); the largest was in 1953. Flood warnings have been issued for parts of the town since 2006, most recently on 12 January 2017.
Is Cleethorpes at risk of surface water flooding?
About 5.3% of homes are at high risk and 6.4% at medium risk from surface water, against 27% at high or medium risk from rivers and the sea. Surface water floods come with little warning, and the agencies don’t issue warnings for them.
Is radon a problem in Cleethorpes?
Not by the atlas: every 1 km square over Cleethorpes is in the lowest band, where fewer than 1 in 100 homes are expected to be above the action level.
Are there flood warnings in Cleethorpes now?
Yes: flood alert for North Sea coast at Withernsea, Easington and Kilnsea, as of 12 November 2026, 18:32. Follow the Environment Agency’s advice on GOV.UK’s Check for flooding service.
Contains Environment Agency information © Environment Agency and/or database right 2026. Contains British Geological Survey materials © UKRI 2026.
Sources: Environment Agency Risk of Flooding from Rivers and Sea, postcodes in areas at risk (June 2026); Natural Resources Wales Flood Risk Assessment Wales (May 2026); ONS Census 2021 households by postcode · Environment Agency Risk of Flooding from Surface Water (NaFRA2, 2025) and Natural Resources Wales Flood Risk Assessment Wales surface water and small watercourses, read at every address (ONS National Statistics UPRN Lookup, September 2026) and weighted by Census 2021 households by postcode · Environment Agency Recorded Flood Outlines and Natural Resources Wales historic flood map, inside the ONS 2022 built-up-area boundary · Environment Agency Hydrology API (daily maximum river level) and flood-monitoring stage scales · Environment Agency real-time flood-monitoring API · Environment Agency Historic Flood Warnings (January 2006 to June 2026) and flood warning and alert areas · BGS/UKHSA Indicative Atlas of Radon in Great Britain, version 3, by 1 km square · TownRatings grades: our own summary of the data, ranked against UK towns only. All under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026 (ONS boundaries). Northern Ireland: Source: NISRA; contains Land & Property Services data and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland information, © Crown copyright, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Scotland: contains National Records of Scotland data, Registers of Scotland data and SEPA data, © Crown copyright / © SEPA 2025, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.