Leonid Meteor Shower: When To See Peak In Metro Denver

How about a little justice, 2020? One way to deliver it to Colorado would be for the heavens to kick up an intense meteor storm when the Leonids peak later this month.

The Leonids will peak overnight Nov. 16-17. The National Weather Service forecast calls for a partly cloudy sky both nights. The crescent moon will be only about 5 percent illuminated during the peak, so it shouldn’t interfere too much with your sky gazing.

But back to what would be a perfect storm for 2020: The Leonids have a reputation for meteor storms when the shooting stars fly at rates approaching 100,000 an hour.

Wouldn’t that be a perfect redemption for the storms of another brand that have defined 2020?

OK, it doesn’t happen that way often.

Don’t miss the latest news updates in Colorado. Sign up for free Patch news alerts and newsletters for what you need to know daily.

The last big Leonid meteor storm was reported in the southwest U.S. in 1966, and the peak didn’t come close to approaching that number. But the show was still memorable, and those who saw it reported seeing 40 to 50 meteors per second, which amounted to 2,400 to 3,000 per minute.

The meteor shower occurs when the Earth crosses the orbital path of 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.

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, according to Earthsky.org. Then 33 years later, a storm occurred in 1866. That prompted astronomers to predict another one in 1899, but it didn’t occur.