Who will be able to watch Perseid Meteor Shower?

One of the most spectacular meteor showers of the year is about to peak over the next couple of days. And this year, there will be twice as many meteors streaking across the sky than in years past.

Key points:

• The Perseid Meteor Shower peaks Thursday and Friday night.
• The best day to view the meteor shower will be Wednesday night into Thursday morning

According to NASA, the Perseids Meteor Shower is expected to produce between 100-200 meteors per hour at times on Thursday and Friday nights. If you were hoping to wait until the peak, you may find yourself out of luck. However, Western New York does have a window of opportunity. 

Mostly clear skies Wednesday night into Thursday morning will offer the best opportunity to see the Perseids for much of Western New York. Folks living along the New York-Pennsylvania border will see cloud cover creep on in Thursday morning. Best time for you folks to see the meteor shower will be between the times of 12:00 a.m. and 2:00 a.m.

The moon will set Thursday morning at 12:30. The best time to watch the meteor shower will be from 12:30 a.m. until 5:00 a.m. Thursday.

There will be a few more clouds out there all across Western New York Thursday night into Friday morning. Still, you'll find pockets of clear skies at time, giving you fair conditions to watch the meteor shower, but not front row seats to the show.

Expect cloudy skies for Friday night into Saturday morning for all of Western New York, with showers and thunder storms in the area.  

The best areas to view the Perseids Meteor Shower will be far away from cities and towns that produce light pollution. Allow yourself 45 minutes for your eyes to adjust to the dark sky.

Usually around 80 meteors streak across the sky during the Perseids. However, there is a reason for this year's "outburst" in meteor activity.

Particles, such as rocks and dust from the Swift Tuttle Comet are chipped off from the comet itself as it approaches the sun. This creates a stream of leftover dust and rocks in space. Jupiter's gravity influences the streams orbit, and is sometimes pushed towards Earth's direction. 

The moon setting in the sky early in the morning allow you to see more meteors. 

The next big meteor shower won't happen until December, when the Geminids Meteor Shower will produce up to 120 meteors per hour.