Here’s why Lancaster is among the best places to live if you suffer from hayfever

Bespoke office plant company Exubia analysed 100 locations across the UK to determine which city or town is the worst for hayfever.

And Lancaster came out in the top 10 of the UK’s best towns and cities for sufferers.

1. Rochdale

2. Glasgow

3. Bradford

4. Tamworth

5. Birmingham

6. Blackpool

7. Burnley

8. Hull

9. Lancaster

10. Rugby

The study revealed that Rochdale is the UK's best town due to its climate, low grass cover and low tree cover.

Overall, the north west dominated the table with five entries, with Lancaster placed at number nine.

Meanwhile, in sixth place Blackpool highlighted itself as the best place for tree pollen sufferers due to its extremely low tree cover, despite the windy conditions residents face.

If you do find yourself in an area where your symptoms flare up then wearing wrap-around sunglasses and installing a pollen filter into your car is a great first line of defence.

When arriving home, it is also critical to remove any outdoor clothes and wash the pollen out of your hair. Pollen that gets stuck on fabric or in hair can prolong suffering for hours post pollen exposure.

Symptoms of hayfever tend to get worse as temperatures rise and then ease when temperatures surpass 28°C.

The wind tends to increase the spread of pollen, making symptoms worse, and rainfall tends to lead to a marked decrease in pollen concentration.

Using this information, Exubia assessed monthly mean wind speeds in knots, maximum temperature, and average rainfall during the months most people suffer from hayfever (May to July).

To complete the rankings, they used ONS local authority data to determine the grass cover and tree cover of each area.

As tree pollen and grass pollen are the two most common causes of hayfever, this gives a good indication of how bad the pollen count will be in the area.

Exubia then gave the towns and cities a score from 1 to 100 depending on how they compared with each other on each factor and combined these scores to give each place an overall rank across the board.

The lower the score, the better the location is for hayfever sufferers.

Rochdale: tree cover 22/100; grass cover 42/100; aridity 11/100; breeziness 6/100; heat 24/100; overall score 105/500

Glasgow: tree cover 66/100; grass cover 61/100; aridity 3/100; breeziness 13/100; heat 7/100; overall score 150/500

Bradford: tree cover 37/100; grass cover 68/100; aridity 5/100; breeziness 43/100; heat 9/100; overall score 162/500

Tamworth: tree cover 7/100; grass cover 23/100; aridity 49/100; breeziness 24/100; heat 60/100; overall score 163/500

Birmingham: tree cover 35/100; grass cover 35/100. aridity 28/100; breeziness 22/100; heat 47/100; overall score 167/500

Blackpool: tree cover 1/100; grass cover 27/100; aridity 33/100; breeziness 93/100, heat 18/100; overall score: 172/500

Burnley: tree cover 62/100; grass cover 90/100; aridity 4/100; breeziness 2/100; heat 15/100; overall score 173/500

Hull: tree cover 2/100; grass cover 23/100; aridity 50/100; breeziness 37/100; heat 61/100; overall score 176/500

Lancaster: tree cover 45/100; grass cover 63/100; aridity 38/100; breeziness 47/100; heat 16/100; overall score 177/500

Rugby: tree cover 19/100; grass cover 13/100; aridity 21/100; breeziness 94/100; heat 74/100; overall score 178/500