Leonid Meteor Shower Peak 2019: When To Watch In NoVA, DC

WASHINGTON, DC — The Leonid meteor shower peaks overnight Sunday and Monday morning, although a bright moon could interfere a bit with the view. Skywatchers in northern Virginia and the District of Columbia may be able to see the meteor show.

The National Weather Service is calling for cloudy skies across the DC region during the meteor shower's peak, with isolated showers Monday night. In typical years, the meteors fly at a rate of about 10 or 15 an hour. You'll want to find a dark sky as far away as possible from city lights.

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 Bill Cooke, NASA's meteor expert, told Space.com that skywatchers who stare directly at the radiant point may miss meteors that have longer tails.

For the best chance to see Leonid meteors, skywatchers should look away from the moon, Earthsky.org advises.

Related: 2019 Guide To Meteor Showers, Lunar Eclipse, Supermoons In MD

And here's some good news as you're bemoaning the waning gibbous moon: a bright sky won't cause you to miss the rare and spectacular meteor storm. Even under a moonlit sky, some of the brightest Leonid meteors should be visible.

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

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 occur 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.

The next spectacular Leonid meteor storm didn't occur until 1966, where skywatchers in the southwest U.S. reported seeing 40 to 50 meteors a second (2,400 to 3,000 per minute) for a 15-minute period during the peak, Earthsky said.

Spaceweather.com reported another Leonid meteor storm occurred in 2001, when "thousands of meteors an hour rained over North America and Hawaii."

— By Beth Dalbey