Newcastle named among worst places to watch fireworks on Bonfire Night, where are the best and worst?

Newcastle is no place to watch a fireworks display this Bonfire Night. That is at least according to research conducted by LotteryCritic, who have ranked the ten best and the ten worst areas to watch the explosive annual event.

But it’s not the worst, according to the study, which rather than look at the events and activities on offer in cities across the country they instead took into account how effective looking into the night sky is in order to see the plethora of fireworks that will litter the Newcastle skyline this November.

The research has taken into account the level of light pollution each area surveyed has by entering the latitude and longitude of 82 different areas across the UK. Readings for the Bortle scale (class 1 - 9), SQM (mag./arc sec2) and artificial brightness (µcd/m2) were collected for each location on the list.

A rank score out of 100 was created for every location, summarising the three readings into a final score, by using the average percentrank formula on the three variables, uncovering the best location in the UK to watch fireworks. Newcastle’s ranking was 31.33, meaning the amount of light pollution in the city made it less than ideal for fireworks displays.

St. Davids in Pembrokeshire earned itself the number one spot with a score of 74.40 with Uckfield and Truro making up the top three, respectively. London however was at the bottom of the list with a total of just 28.93 - the only area surveyed to get a score below 29.

Top ten worst places to spend Bonfire Night

The worst places to watch fireworks this Bonfire Night, according to LotteryCritic’s research, are as follows (from worst to best):

1. London (28.93)
2. Manchester (29.23)
3. Leeds (29.53)
4. Glasgow (29.83)
5. Birmingham (30.13)
6. Salford (30.43)
7. Liverpool (30.73)
8. Sheffield (31.03)
9. Newcastle (31.33)
10. Aberdeen (31.63)

Top ten places to spend Bonfire Night in the UK

Here are the top ten best places to spend Bonfire Night in the UK, according to the light data pollution data gathered by LotteryCritic:

1. St. Davids (74.40)
2. Uckfield (73.80)
3. Truro (73.50)
4. Wells (73.20)
5. Kendal (72.90)
6. Ripon (71.40)
7. Winchester (71.10)
8. Eastbourne (70.80)
9. Haverhill (70.80)
10. Elgin (70.20)