Wednesday night into early Thursday morning brings the peak of the Perseid meteor shower—traditionally one of the best, most reliable shows of the entire year.
Unfortunately, the weather isn’t entirely cooperating for us here in Western Washington. A mix of mid and high-level clouds, paired with an increasing blanket of wildfire smoke, is going to hamper viewing for a lot of folks.
If you’re still determined to catch a few shooting stars, your best strategy is to head out near or after midnight into the wee hours of Thursday morning. Look up toward the northern sky and, if you can, get as far away from city lights as possible. City dwellers will likely be dealing with a combination of light pollution reflecting off the smoke layer, which is going to make for very difficult to impossible viewing.
By Thursday morning, we’ll have a layer of low clouds near the surface, coupled with persistent haze aloft. As the sun goes to work, those low clouds will break up, giving way to afternoon sunshine. Highs west of the Cascades will climb comfortably into the 70s, with a few low 80s for the warmer spots. Over the Cascades, afternoon heat will once again trigger a few isolated showers and thunderstorms by late afternoon and evening—though we aren’t expecting the same concentration of lightning strikes we saw through Wednesday afternoon.
If clouds or smoke derail your plans Wednesday night, you get a second chance. The Perseids remain active Thursday night into early Friday morning. While we’ll technically be just past the absolute peak, you can still catch a solid performance IF everything cooperates. But, we’ll still have some lingering clouds and smoke hanging around, keeping conditions short of a perfect show.
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