Leonid Meteor Shower Peaks This Weekend: When To See Fireballs In VA

VIRGINIA — The weekend weather forecast for Virginia spells good news for skywatchers who want to catch the annual Leonid meteor shower, which peaks Friday and Saturday.

The National Weather Service forecast calls for mostly cloudy skies on Friday night, clearing to clear skies on Saturday night at the shower’s peak.

The moon will be a thin crescent, so it shouldn’t interfere too much with this annual favorite. In typical years, the Leonids produce about 15 shooting stars an hour at the peak — and they’re lovely. Known for bright, colorful and extremely fast meteors that blaze across the sky at a rate of about 44 miles a second, the Leonids are among the fastest meteors, according to NASA.

The Leonids are also known for their fireballs, larger explosions of light and color that can persist longer than the average meteors. That’s because fireballs originate from larger bits of debris left behind in the orbital path of the Comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle, which litters its orbital path with debris. The debris vaporizes when it enters the Earth’s atmosphere, causing the falling stars.

This shower is also known for Earth-grazers — meteors that streak close to the horizon and are known for long, colorful tails.

The best viewing times for the Leonid meteor shower are after midnight and before dawn. They radiate outward from the stars that make up the lion’s mane in the constellation Leo, but skywatchers who stare directly at the radiant point may miss meteors with longer tails.

You’ll also want to find a dark sky as far away as possible from city lights.

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 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 Leonids are also known for producing some of the most amazing meteor storms in history, but no such event is expected this year, according to meteor experts.

• Related: 2023 Guide To Meteor Showers And Other Celestial Events

Experts say at least 1,000 meteors an hour must fall for a shower to be considered a storm, which they say occurs about every 33 years, the amount of time it takes Tempel-Tuttle to orbit the sun. The parent comet releases fresh debris with every orbit, increasing the likelihood of a meteor storm.

The greatest Leonids meteor storm ever recorded was in 1833, when up to 100,000 meteors an hour were reported. Then 33 years later, a storm occurred in 1866. That caused astronomers to predict another one in 1899, but it didn’t occur.

In fact, the next spectacular Leonid meteor storm didn’t occur until 1966, when skywatchers in the southwest U.S. reported seeing 40 to 50 meteors a second (2,400 to 3,000 per minute) for 15 minutes during the peak. And in 2001, skywatchers reported thousands of meteors an hour over North America.

The Leonids continue through Dec. 2. The peak occurs as the Taurid meteor shower is winding down, and just as the beautiful Geminids ramp up.

The Geminds run from Nov. 19 to Dec. 24, peaking Dec. 13-14 with as many as 120 multicolored meteors an hour. We’ll have more on Patch as the peak approaches.