Countdown

Perseid Meteor Storm Possible

Saturday, August 12, 2028 · 646 days away

GlobalSpaceexpected

Countdown

645

Days

Hours

Min

Sec

Event overview

Possible Perseid meteor outburst from a dense 1479 dust trail of comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle that Earth is modelled to cross on the night of 11–12 August 2028 — with rates potentially exceeding 1,000 meteors per hour, the strongest Perseid display since the 1990s.

Date: 2028-08-12
Country / jurisdiction
Region: Global
Category: Space
Status: expected

Confirmation checklist

Before you act on this countdown

Use the timer for orientation, then run through these checks before booking, publishing, buying tickets, scheduling alerts, or moving operations around this date.

Date signal

This is an expected date. Keep watching the source before making firm plans.

Local time

No reliable start time is attached yet, so this page stays date-first instead of implying midnight.

Calendar action

Use reminders for monitoring only until the date is stronger than expected or windowed.

Next useful path

Use the Space and 2028 paths below to compare related countdowns before deciding what to watch next.

Source trail

Source trail for Perseid Meteor Storm Possible

Verify source

Primary source

imo.net

Last reviewed

2026-04-30

Tracker status

expected

Date precision

Expected single-date signal; useful for monitoring, but not strong enough for irreversible plans.

Schema posture

Precise Event startDate schema is withheld so the page does not overstate an expected or windowed date.

This is an expected date. Use reminders and monitoring, but verify the source before making travel, purchase, publication, or staffing decisions.

Primary citation

The current date signal points to imo.net. The source URL is shown visibly on the page so readers can verify late changes instead of relying only on the timer.

Freshness and review

Source policy was reviewed on 2026-04-30. Live countdown values are render-time snapshots; editorial source fields update when the tracked event dataset changes.

Operational detail

The record does not carry a reliable public start time yet, so the page avoids implying a midnight or all-day start.

Weak-date handling

The page stays crawlable and useful, but confidence copy and schema posture are deliberately weaker than a confirmed event page.

What this countdown tracks

A possible Perseid meteor storm on the night of Friday 11 August into Saturday 12 August 2028, when Earth's orbit is modelled to graze a dense dust trail laid down by comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle during its 1479 perihelion passage. Outburst rates have been forecast in the 1,000+ meteors per hour range — what would be the strongest Perseid display since the 1990s and one of the headline night-sky events of the decade.

About the shower

The Perseids are the most-watched annual meteor shower in the Northern Hemisphere. Their parent body is comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle, a 26-km nucleus on a 133-year orbit. Each August Earth passes through the comet's recent debris stream, producing typical zenithal hourly rates around 100. Outburst years occur when Earth happens to cross a denser, older filament — a discrete trail of dust shed centuries earlier and slowly disturbed by Jupiter's gravity into a narrow ribbon Earth's orbit can intersect.

Meteor-stream modellers — Jérémie Vaubaillon (IMCCE), Mikhail Maslov, Mikiya Sato and Esko Lyytinen — have all flagged the 1479 trail as a candidate for an August 2028 encounter. Predicted rates and the exact time of peak vary across models from a tens-per-hour enhancement up to a 1,000-plus storm; convergence between independent predictors raises confidence.

Significance

Outburst Perseids are extremely rare. Confirmed historic outbursts: 1862, 1921, 1945, 1991, 1992, 1993 and 2016.
2028 also benefits from a near-new Moon (new Moon on 20 August 2028), giving dark-sky observers minimal lunar interference at the predicted peak.
The radiant in Perseus rises around 10 pm local time and climbs through the night, reaching maximum altitude before dawn.

Past Perseid outbursts

1991 / 1992 / 1993 — the most thoroughly documented modern Perseid outbursts, observed by amateur networks worldwide and consistent with predictions tied to Swift-Tuttle's 1992 perihelion passage.
2016 — a moderate enhancement, with rates around 200/hour predicted by Esko Lyytinen and well observed.
2023, 2024, 2025 — typical years, ZHR around 100, no outburst.

How to follow

The International Meteor Organization (imo.net) publishes the canonical annual Perseid forecast. The American Meteor Society, the British Astronomical Association meteor section, NASA's All-Sky Fireball Network, the Global Meteor Network and amateur radio meteor-scatter observers all contribute real-time rate measurements. Live streams from the Subaru Telescope, Lowell Observatory and Slooh typically run on the peak night.

Pair with Perseid meteor shower 2026, Mars opposition 2027 and the Tianwen-3 Mars sample-return launch for the cluster of marquee astronomy events around the late-2020s.

FAQ

When is the predicted outburst? Night of 11–12 August 2028. How strong could it get? Models suggest 1,000+ meteors per hour at peak. Is the prediction certain? No — meteor outbursts depend on dust-trail densities that are inherently uncertain. Multiple independent forecasts agree, which is encouraging. Where to watch? Anywhere in the Northern Hemisphere with dark skies; the radiant in Perseus is highest before dawn.

Date confidence

Expected date

Perseid Meteor Storm Possible has an expected date signal, but the source has not locked every detail. Treat the countdown as a monitoring aid and verify the linked source before making time-sensitive plans.

Source

https://www.imo.net/files/meteor-shower/cal2026.pdf

Source host: imo.net
Date precision: Expected single-date signal; verify before acting
Schema posture: Precise Event startDate withheld because the record is expected or windowed
Planning boundary: Use as a monitoring aid until the source trail is stronger

Structured data posture

This page does not emit a precise Event startDate because the tracked record is expected or windowed. The countdown stays useful for monitoring, while schema avoids making a stronger claim than the source supports.

Countdown evidence

Retention class

Expected-date monitoring countdown

Evidence score

3/10 record signals

City-page readiness

Held to date-first

Evidence score3/10 signals present: primary source URL; tracked date; related event cluster
Date and schemaSchema-limited watchlist date: Expected single-date signal; useful for monitoring, but not strong enough for irreversible plans. Precise Event startDate schema is withheld so the page does not overstate an expected or windowed date.
Local-time readinessDate-first only: The record is not used as a city-local event page until it has a reliable time, timezone, and non-windowed date.
Record completenessMinimal event record: No additional record signals are attached yet.
Weak-field watchlist4 fields to improve: verified public start time; venue; manual official-source note; historical sequence
Source freshnessimo.net; reviewed 2026-04-30: Related crawl path: Japan 2028 House of Councillors Election, ISRO Shukrayaan-1 Venus Orbit Insertion, NASA Dragonfly Launch to Titan, Rosh Hashanah 2028.

Planning notes

How to use this Perseid Meteor Storm Possible countdown

Countdown pages are useful when they are honest about what is known, what is merely expected, and what still needs checking. This page keeps the live timer separate from the source confidence and structured-data posture.

Date confidence

This record uses an expected single-date signal for Saturday, August 12, 2028; verify imo.net before committing travel, spend, publication, or launch planning. The page keeps Event structured data cautious because the date is expected or windowed.

What could change

Watch for date shifts, venue or access updates, broadcast windows, registration rules, and source corrections. The current precision is: Expected single-date signal; useful for monitoring, but not strong enough for irreversible plans..

Local-time usefulness

No reliable source start time is attached yet, so the page stays date-first and avoids implying a midnight start. 646 days remain at render time.

Category context

Perseid Meteor Storm Possible sits in Space with Global context. Related countdown links should help users compare similar events, not create unverified event-city pages.

Catalog-specific details

No creator, platform, league, brand, fixture, family, or alternate-name detail is attached to this event record.

Series and expectation notes

No series history, end date, or what-to-expect field is attached.

Priority note

This page is kept specific through source confidence, category, region, date precision, and update notes rather than generic countdown filler.

Verification trail

source URL https://www.imo.net/files/meteor-shower/cal2026.pdf. trust checks: Source host: imo.net, Date precision: Expected single-date signal; verify before acting, Schema posture: Precise Event startDate withheld because the record is expected or windowed, and Planning boundary: Use as a monitoring aid until the source trail is stronger. no manual editorial context is attached yet.

Record completeness

missing or weak fields: verified public start time, venue, manual official-source note, and historical sequence

Related crawl path

Nearby retained events: Japan 2028 House of Councillors Election, ISRO Shukrayaan-1 Venus Orbit Insertion, NASA Dragonfly Launch to Titan, Rosh Hashanah 2028, and IPCC AR7 Synthesis Report. These links should support topical discovery without creating unverified event-city pages.

Review boundary: this page tracks the public date signal, source link, category, region, and calendar posture. It does not replace official ticketing, exchange, broadcaster, organizer, court, regulator, or government notices.

Source reviewed Apr 30, 2026. The countdown record is intentionally labeled as scheduled or expected; use the source link and any range notes before treating the date as final.

Live values rendered at Nov 5, 8:18 PM UTC.

Related planning pages

Countdown hubAll currently tracked countdowns.Space countdownsRelated events in this category.2028 countdownsEvents tracked for the same calendar year.SourcesHow we cite and review date sources.Speculative datesHow expected and windowed dates are labeled.

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