Meteor Shower Alert: Will the Boötids Light Up?

The Boötids meteor shower can go from barely noticeable to a full-blown spectacle—sometimes reaching over 100 meteors an hour. Most years, it’s a quiet display with just a few streaks, but in rare outbursts like 1998, the sky lit up with activity. Active from June 22 to July 2 and peaking around June 27 in the Northern Hemisphere, the Boötids are linked to Comet 7P/Pons–Winnecke. When Earth passes through a denser patch of the comet’s leftover dust, the result can be a sudden meteor storm. These bursts are unpredictable, which makes them all the more exciting. To catch it, head to a dark spot, avoid light pollution, and look west after sunset.