See Up To 100 Shooting Stars Per Hour Over WA State Tonight!

If you've been looking to make a wish upon a shooting star, tonight might be your best chance to find one over the skies of Washington State for the remainder of the year.

HOW TO SEE FIREBALL METEORS OVER WASHINGTON STATE!

The annual Perseid meteor shower is peaking on Aug. 12-13 in the Northern Hemisphere with the promise of dozens, perhaps even hundreds, of brilliant streaks from the heavens to Earth - as well as the possibility for prodigious fireballs that will illuminate the skies for miles around.

Many call the Perseids the best extravaganza of falling stars that happens every year, although 2025's lightshow could be somewhat diminished by the current waning gibbous moon.

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HOW TO SEE UP TO 100 METEORS AN HOUR OVER WASHINGTON STATE!

Experts say the ideal time to watch the skies over Evergreen country will be in the predawn hours of Aug. 13, when as many as 100 luminous trails per hour will be visible.

Robert Lunsford of the American Meteor Society, tells Space.com that stargazers could begin seeing evidence of the annual shower as early as 10 p.m. on Aug. 12, and the shooting stars seen between then and around midnight - which are referred to as "earthgrazers", will likely have a long and impressive visible tract.

Lunsford went on the explain that falling star hunters will find their best canvas for activity in the northern skies with their backs to the moon, regardless of their location in Washington.

WHERE DO THE PERSEID METEORS COME FROM AND WHY DO THEY HAPPEN EVERY YEAR?

The Perseid meteor shower happens annually when the Earth moves through a trail of debris that was sloughed off when comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle passed by the planet in 1992.

The tiny particles, many of which are no bigger than a grain of sand, enter the Earth's atmosphere at speeds reaching 37 miles per second and create a brief but blazing signature across the planet's skies.

Space.com says the next time the 109P/Swift-Tuttle comet will make a close pass to the Earth is in 2126, when it will in essence refill the stock of debris that creates the Perseid meteor shower annually.