AccuWeather.com meteorologists continue to monitor sky cover this weekend for the viewing possibilities of the Lyrids, the first major meteor shower since early January.
The shower will be visible from through April 26, peaking during the predawn hours of Sunday, April 21, and Monday, April 22. While the Lyrids average 10 to 20 meteors an hour, AccuWeather's Mark Paquette said there is potential for significantly more.
For weekend stargazers, the meteor shower will be visible to some areas on Saturday, though it won't peak until Sunday into Monday. This graphic, and graphics for additional days, will be updated as conditions change. Last updated April 20 at 11 a.m.
"It is unpredictable," Paquette said. "Sometimes lyrids have 'surges' which can break up the rate to near 100 per hour."
Lyrids captured in 2012 at Pawnee Buttes. Photo by David Kingham
Paquette explained that the Lyrids, named for their location in the constellation Lyra, are the debris of Comet Thatcher tail when Earth's path crosses through it. The meteors are bits of the tail's comet, usually no bigger than grains of sand, that strike the atmosphere at 49 kilometers a second. As they travel through our atmosphere, they disintegrate as streaks of light, possibly casting a shadow before leaving behind smoke-like trail of debris.
"Lyrid meteors are typically as bright as the stars in the Big Dipper, which is to say, middling brightness, but some are more intense, even brighter than Venus," Paquette said.
The "Lyrid fireballs" originate in the sky near the star Vega, Lyra's brightest star. Predawn hours offer the best view of the meteors as Vega sits nearly overhead. In the evenings the shower sits closer to the horizon, blocking many of them from view. The waxing moon will also light up the sky until after midnight, dimming the sight of the meteors. However, the moon sets before dawn, so its brightness will not hinder the view of the shower when it moves into its peak positional hours.
Most of the eastern and western thirds of the country will have clear to partly cloudy skies during the predawn hours on Sunday. A section of the Plains into the upper Northwest, as well as most of the Rockies and western Great Lakes, will have cloudy skies that will make any sightings difficult for this day.
Forecast as of 11 a.m. April 20.
Sunday night, the anticipated peak for meteor viewing going into Monday morning, will affect many "good" and "fair" areas with cloud coverage. Conditions will improve for the coastal Northwest, but worsen for the Ohio Valley and the Gulf Coast.
Be sure to check back for updated conditions, as well as for the conditions of other days as the meteor shower's timeline progresses. For more updates, like us on Facebook atAccuWeather.com Astronomy.
Meteorologist Steve Travis contributed to this article.
