Meteor storm
An extraordinary display in which a meteor shower produces a thousand or more meteors an hour.
Most meteor showers give a few dozen meteors an hour at best. Very occasionally Earth passes through an especially dense, fresh trail of dust left by a comet, and the rate soars. When it reaches 1,000 or more meteors per hour, the event is called a meteor storm. Storms are brief, often lasting only an hour or two, and visible only from the part of the world where it is night at the right moment.
The most famous storms come from the Leonids in November, produced by Comet Tempel–Tuttle, which returns roughly every 33 years. In 1833 the Leonids stunned observers across North America, and the event helped scientists realise that meteors are particles from space, not weather. In 1966 observers in the western United States saw, for a short time, many tens of thousands per hour. Smaller storms were seen in 1999 and 2001. The Draconids, from Comet Giacobini–Zinner, stormed in 1933 and 1946.
Astronomers now predict storms by modelling where individual dust trails lie. Storm meteors are fast and tiny, so none drop meteorites. To watch one, you need only dark skies, warm clothes and luck with the weather.
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Level: Explorer Ages 10 and up