What is a meteor STORM?
On rare occasions though, Earth passes through a particularly thick clump within a meteor stream, and a meteor outburst will occur – a time when even more meteors than usual can be seen. And if these outbursts are VERY heavy, they become what are called meteor storms: a brief period of a few minutes or hours, where (from certain parts of the Earth’s surface) an incredible show of falling stars can be seen. Meteor storms are both extremely rare (once in decades) and extremely hard to predict. However, they can be life-changing events to witness (and in fact, a number of religious movements have been spawned by historic meteor storms, e.g., the Transcendentalist and Methodist Reform movements born soon after Nineteenth Century Leonid storms!) During a meteor storm, the sky seems to literally “fill with falling fire”, and as many as 10 or more falling stars can be seen during a single SECOND of observing! Finally, on many occasions hopeful watchers are given the opportunity to see not a f
