Perhaps it was just the weather, or perhaps it is indicative of a trend away from colourful explosions, but bonfire night was a bit of a damp squib – at least in my area.
There were whistles and bangs most of the night, but nothing like as frequent or concentrated. This year for the first time, I didn’t even bother going out to watch the sky.
Can I provide any evidence for my assertion it was a bad year for fireworks? Well, for years I’ve been looking out for spent rockets and shells on my walk to the station. I always go the same way, and have a general idea of what I’d see in a good year – typically tens of spent firework cases, bits of rocket stick and colourful plastic shells from something that exploded high above.
This year, this morning in fact, I counted two items, one rocket stick and one burned tubular cardboard case. This was after I had decided to specifically look out for items, if I hadn’t I’d have probably missed the stick – it was embedded in a privet hedge.
Spent single use vapes were scattered in abundance, I stopped counting at 15. Many of these had been damaged, and their battery exposed with the potential for a brief burst of flame.
Anyway, that’s all anecdote, not data.
Bonfire night 2023 was a damp squib. That’s an assertion and one I’m holding to.