Event Capable of Producing ‘Meteor Storms’ Coming to New York State

While the nights may be growing colder, the skies are set to light up above New York in the coming weeks.

The Orionid meteor shower, which are the fragments left over from Halley's' Comet, already peaked in late October.

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Early November is also the time of year when the Southern and Northern Taurids meteor showers overlap. And while both astronomical events are not known for producing many meteors, the ones that can be seen are sometimes known for producing bright fireballs, according to the American Meteor Society.

Next Big Meteor Shower Arrives Above New York State 

Earth Sky says that the Leonids meteor shower will peak from late night November 17 until dawn November 18. The meteor shower can best be seen right after midnight until the early hours of the morning, says astronomers.

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While during normal years, the Leonids produce around 10 to 15 meteors per hour, some years have seen spectacular "meteor storms". Obviously, these are not anything like the thunder and lightning storms we see experience on Earth, but meteor 'outbursts', where thousands of meteors can been witnessed in an hour.

Astronomers says that during those events, meteors fall across the skies like "rain".

NASA say the most spectacular Leonids meteor storm was in 1966. where thousands upon thousands of meteors fell in just around 15 minutes.

The Leonids are the leftovers of comet Tempel–Tuttle. Earth Sky says what we'll see is not Tempel-Tuttle's "fresh material", but "rather debris from earlier returns that also happen to be most dense at the same time." Earth Sky says that Earth will not encounter any more visible dense clouds of debris until around 2099.