The Leonids: When and How to Watch

Every meteor in the Leonid shower is moving at about 71 kilometers a second, faster than anything else on this sky map's shower list, fast enough that even a modest year produces streaks with a distinct, sharp quality you notice before you consciously register why. This is also the shower that, roughly every third of a century, has produced some of the most intense meteor storms ever recorded by human observers.

When the Leonids run and peak

Our sky map lists the Leonids active November 6 through November 30, peaking the night of November 17 into the 18th. The International Meteor Organization's 2026 calendar names the nodal-crossing peak specifically as November 17 at 23:45 UT, which matches our page closely. The rates agree too: both sources put the expected 2026 ZHR at 15. IMO is explicit that no storm is predicted for 2026, since the parent comet's next perihelion, the point that has historically triggered Leonid storms, is not due until 2031.

The comet, and why its return matters so much

The Leonids come from comet 55P Tempel-Tuttle, which swings back toward the sun roughly every 33 years. Storm years cluster around those returns, because a fresh, dense trail of debris sits closest to Earth's orbital path in the years immediately following perihelion. The two storms most often cited are 1833 and 1966, both producing rates that observers at the time struggled to even count, with some contemporary accounts describing thousands of meteors per minute rather than per hour. A shower running at a ZHR of 15 in an ordinary year and thousands per minute in a storm year is the same debris stream behaving in two entirely different regimes, and it is worth being honest that most years, including this one, land firmly in the ordinary category.

Why the speed changes what you'll actually see

At 71 kilometers a second, Leonid meteors are the fastest of any regular annual shower, a direct consequence of the fact that Earth and the comet's debris are moving in nearly opposite directions when they meet. Fast meteors tend to look shorter and more intense rather than long and lazy, and a fair number leave brief glowing trains behind them even at ordinary, non-storm rates. If you have watched a slower shower like the Taurids before, the Leonids will feel noticeably different within the first meteor or two.

What a ZHR of 15 actually promises

Zenithal hourly rate is the count an ideal observer would see with the radiant directly overhead and skies dark enough to reach magnitude 6.5, which sits at the top edge of a rural to suburban transition sky. At a ZHR of 15, most real observers under real skies, with the radiant somewhere other than straight up and a limiting magnitude well under 6.5, will see meaningfully fewer than 15 an hour. IMO's 2026 forecast lists the Leonids among the showers with no moonlight disturbance expected at their maximum this year, which is one variable working in your favor even if the base rate is modest.

Where to look, and when

Leo rises late in the evening and climbs highest in the hours before dawn, so the best window runs from around midnight until first light. Do not fix your eyes on Leo itself. Look roughly forty degrees away from the radiant, toward whatever patch of sky is darkest and highest for you, and let your peripheral vision catch the longer streaks that appear away from the point of origin.

What this means for you tonight

Set your expectations at a modest fifteen an hour under ideal conditions and fewer than that in practice, then go out anyway, because the speed of a Leonid meteor is worth seeing on its own terms even in a non-storm year. Note the date on your calendar for future reference too: the comet's next perihelion in 2031 is when Leonid-watchers will start paying much closer attention again.

Leo, the constellation the radiant sits in, has its own entry at the Leo constellation post. Before you head out, check how light pollution changes what you can actually see, and use the sky map to find Leo's position from your own location on peak night.