Quadrantid Meteors: VA, DC Weather For 2024’s 1st Shooting Star Show

WASHINGTON, DC — The first shooting star show of 2024, the Quadrantids, could treat sky gazers to up to 120 meteors an hour during this week’s short peak, weather conditions permitting in Virginia and the District of Columbia.

The Quadrantid meteor shower peak is so brief — only six hours — and can occur in daylight hours. This year, the shower peaks at 7:53 a.m. Eastern Time on Thursday, Jan. 4. For the best chances to see shooting stars, find a dark sky and start watching around 4:53 a.m.

The National Weather Service forecast for DC and Northern Virginia calls for mostly cloudy skies around that time, through mid-morning on Thursday.

With their high rates and potential for bright fireballs, the Quadrantids are worth getting outside to see, despite a short window of time to see them — that’s because they come from a thin debris stream the Earth crosses at a perpendicular angle, according to NASA. Fireballs are larger explosions of light and color that can persist longer than the average meteor streak.

Virginia State Parks has four parks designated as International Dark Sky Parks by the International Dark-Sky Association: Staunton River, James River, Natural Bridge and Sky Meadows.

Other spots for star-gazing in Virginia include: Assateague Island National Seashore, Grayson Highlands State Park, James River State Park, Meadows of Dan, Natural Bridge State Park, Natural Chimneys Park, Rappahannock County Park, and Shenandoah National Park, according to Space Tourism Guide.

The Quadrantids “have the potential to be the strongest shower of the year,” according to the American Meteor Society, but because of the short peak and often poor weather conditions in January, it’s sometimes overlooked. Even during poor weather conditions, about 25 shooting stars an hour may be visible under dark skies.

The moon will be about half full at the shower’s peak, but the American Meteor Society suggests “blocking the moon with a tree or building and viewing toward the northern half of the sky.”

The Quadrantids offer the last chance to see a shooting star show until the Lyrid meteor shower, which peaks April 22-23.

• Related: 2024 Guide To Meteor Showers, Total Solar Eclipse, Supermoons And More

The Quadrantids are named after Quadrans Muralis, an obsolete constellation near the point where Draco, Boötes and Hercules now meet. French astronomer Jerome Lalande created it in 1795, naming it after the “quadrant,” the instrument he used to plot star positions.

Most of the constellation was included in Boötes in the International Astronomical Union catalog of 88 officially recognized constellations adopted in the 1920s, according to Sky & Telescope.

According to NASA, most meteor showers originate from comets, but the Quadrantids originate from asteroid 2003 EH1, which takes 5.52 years to make a single trip around the sun. It’s possible, the agency says, that 2003 EH1 is a “dead comet” or “rock comet” left behind only about 500 years ago.