How to watch the Perseid meteor shower
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Yahoo
30 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Shooting stars visible across the UK in annual Perseid meteor shower
Stargazers across the UK caught sight of shooting stars in the early hours of Wednesday as the Perseid meteor shower hit its annual peak. Every summer, the Earth slams into a trail of debris from the Swift-Tuttle comet that also orbits the Sun. Specks as small as a grain of dust or rice flare up under the pressure of the planet's atmosphere to create shooting stars, said Royal Observatory Greenwich astronomer Dr Ed Bloomer. Around 150 meteors were predicted to cross the sky per hour but that amount will not be visible because the horizon blocks a full view, he added. However, an estimated 100 meteors could be seen per hour in certain locations that are particularly flat and dark. The meteor shower has been running for a few weeks and will continue until around August 24, the astronomer told the PA news agency. Met Office Chief Meteorologist Dan Suri said there was an increased risk of thunderstorms in parts of England on Wednesday evening. 'By the evening, there is an increased risk of thunderstorms across northern areas, with the potential for some fairly wet weather,' he said. 'Whilst the exact location for these unsettled conditions remains uncertain, it's possible a warning may be issued closer to the time.' Clearer skies are expected in the south later in the week, but the weather bureau predicted 'cloudier conditions and some patchy rain' for parts of the north. Dr Bloomer said this means that 'we have lots of chances to see this' but 'you have to let your eyes adjust to the dark'. He recommended stargazers wait half an hour to let their eyes get used to it, adding: 'Take a camping chair or something – if you had one, you would just sit down, and you would just relax, and you would just wait. 'You want to get away from city lights, you want to get away from street lamps. 'If you're looking out from your garden – it sounds obvious – but switch the kitchen light off, give yourself time to just put the phone away.' People struggling to see the meteors can turn and watch through their peripheral vision as it is 'a little bit better with low light conditions', he said. As it is summer, viewers will also have to wait until relatively late at night for it to be dark enough to see the celestial show. The astronomer added: 'For us, it's kind of one of the best (meteor showers), it's kind of reliable, it's long lived, it's quite dense… it's pretty active. 'You don't need to really be in a very specific location, the hourly rate is fairly high, so I think even beginners will be I think satisfied having seen them.' The weather is largely clear but early in the week the almost-full waning moon could make Perseid less visible. The meteor shower will be in the north-east as the sun is going down, Dr Bloomer added. He said: 'However, it's not available to everybody, because the further south you go… Perseid is lower and lower on the horizon. 'The primary interest is for Northern Hemisphere observers – Perseid is pretty low for us here in the UK, but it is above the horizon… in fact, it's above the horizon all day, but the problem is, of course, during the day, nothing's going to be visible.' Despite it being more visible in the north 'the dominant thing is going to be, can you get yourself in a dark location', he added. 'Getting into the middle of a field in the south east of England, in London, is going to be better than being in the middle of Aberdeen.' Shooting stars generally only last a second or two and sometimes appear in flurries, the astronomer said. Rarer meteors the size of a fist or a basketball will produce longer tails and are known as fireballs, he added. These can last five to 10 seconds, but Dr Bloomer said he has only ever seen one. The level up is a bolide but 'that's a sort of national emergency type thing', he added.
Associated Press
an hour ago
- Associated Press
Parts of Juneau brace for flooding from water slipping past Alaska's Mendenhall Glacier
Sections of Alaska's capital city are bracing for the arrival of what could be record floodwaters due to rainwater and snowmelt flowing downstream from a basin dammed by the Mendenhall Glacier. Some Juneau residents in the flood zone have evacuated, heeding warnings. On Tuesday morning, authorities confirmed water had started escaping the ice dam, with flooding expected into Wednesday. The Mendenhall Glacier is about 12 miles (19 kilometers) from Juneau, home to 30,000 people, and is a popular tourist attraction due to its proximity to Alaska's capital city and easy access on walking trails. Homes on the city's outskirts are within miles of Mendenhall Lake, which sits below the glacier, and many front the Mendenhall River, into which the glacial outburst is flowing. The National Weather Service said it expected flooding to to peak around 8 a.m. to noon on Wednesday. 'This will be a new record, based on all of the information that we have,' Nicole Ferrin, a weather service meteorologist, told a news conference Tuesday. Basin flooding is a yearly worry Flooding from the basin has become an annual concern since 2011, and in recent years has swept away houses and swamped hundreds of homes. Government agencies installed temporary barriers this year in hopes of protecting several hundred homes in the inundation area from widespread damage. The flooding happens because a smaller glacier near Mendenhall Glacier retreated — a casualty of the warming climate — and left a basin that fills with rainwater and snowmelt each spring and summer. When the water creates enough pressure, it forces its way under or around the ice dam created by the Mendenhall Glacier, enters Mendenhall Lake and eventually flows down the Mendenhall River, as it did Tuesday. Before the basin began overtopping, the water level was rising rapidly — as much as 4 feet (1.22 meters) per day during especially sunny or rainy days, according to the National Weather Service. The city saw successive years of record flooding in 2023 and 2024 — with the river last August cresting at 15.99 feet (4.9 meters), about 1 foot (30 centimeters) over the prior record set a year earlier — and flooding extending farther into the Mendenhall Valley. This year's flooding was predicted to crest at between 16.3 and 16.8 feet (4.96 to 5.12 meters). Last year, nearly 300 residences were damaged. A large outburst can release some 15 billion gallons of water, according to the University of Alaska Southeast and Alaska Climate Adaptation Science Center. That's the equivalent of nearly 23,000 Olympic-size swimming pools. During last year's flood, the flow rate in the rushing Mendenhall River was about half that of Niagara Falls, the researchers say. A temporary levee is installed City officials responded to concerns from property owners this year by working with state, federal and tribal entities to install a temporary levee along roughly 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) of riverbank in an attempt to guard against widespread flooding. The 10,000 'Hesco' barriers are essentially giant sandbags intended to protect more than 460 properties completely during an 18-foot (5.5-meter) flood event, said emergency manager Ryan O'Shaughnessy. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is at the start of what's expected to be a yearslong process of studying conditions in the region and examining options for a more permanent solution, such as a levee. The timeline has angered some residents, who say it's unreasonable. Outburst floods are expected to continue as long as the Mendenhall Glacier acts as an ice dam to seal off the basin, which could span another 25 to 60 years, according to the university and science center researchers. ___ Associated Press writer Becky Bohrer in Juneau contributed to this report.
Washington Post
an hour ago
- Washington Post
Parts of Juneau brace for flooding from water slipping past Alaska's Mendenhall Glacier
Sections of Alaska's capital city are bracing for the arrival of what could be record floodwaters due to rainwater and snowmelt flowing downstream from a basin dammed by the Mendenhall Glacier. Some Juneau residents in the flood zone have evacuated, heeding warnings. On Tuesday morning, authorities confirmed water had started escaping the ice dam, with flooding expected into Wednesday. The Mendenhall Glacier is about 12 miles (19 kilometers) from Juneau, home to 30,000 people, and is a popular tourist attraction due to its proximity to Alaska's capital city and easy access on walking trails. Homes on the city's outskirts are within miles of Mendenhall Lake, which sits below the glacier, and many front the Mendenhall River, into which the glacial outburst is flowing. The National Weather Service said it expected flooding to to peak around 8 a.m. to noon on Wednesday. 'This will be a new record, based on all of the information that we have,' Nicole Ferrin, a weather service meteorologist, told a news conference Tuesday. Flooding from the basin has become an annual concern since 2011, and in recent years has swept away houses and swamped hundreds of homes. Government agencies installed temporary barriers this year in hopes of protecting several hundred homes in the inundation area from widespread damage. The flooding happens because a smaller glacier near Mendenhall Glacier retreated — a casualty of the warming climate — and left a basin that fills with rainwater and snowmelt each spring and summer. When the water creates enough pressure, it forces its way under or around the ice dam created by the Mendenhall Glacier, enters Mendenhall Lake and eventually flows down the Mendenhall River, as it did Tuesday. Before the basin began overtopping, the water level was rising rapidly — as much as 4 feet (1.22 meters) per day during especially sunny or rainy days, according to the National Weather Service. The city saw successive years of record flooding in 2023 and 2024 — with the river last August cresting at 15.99 feet (4.9 meters), about 1 foot (30 centimeters) over the prior record set a year earlier — and flooding extending farther into the Mendenhall Valley. This year's flooding was predicted to crest at between 16.3 and 16.8 feet (4.96 to 5.12 meters). Last year, nearly 300 residences were damaged. A large outburst can release some 15 billion gallons of water, according to the University of Alaska Southeast and Alaska Climate Adaptation Science Center. That's the equivalent of nearly 23,000 Olympic-size swimming pools. During last year's flood, the flow rate in the rushing Mendenhall River was about half that of Niagara Falls, the researchers say. City officials responded to concerns from property owners this year by working with state, federal and tribal entities to install a temporary levee along roughly 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) of riverbank in an attempt to guard against widespread flooding. The 10,000 'Hesco' barriers are essentially giant sandbags intended to protect more than 460 properties completely during an 18-foot (5.5-meter) flood event, said emergency manager Ryan O'Shaughnessy. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is at the start of what's expected to be a yearslong process of studying conditions in the region and examining options for a more permanent solution, such as a levee. The timeline has angered some residents, who say it's unreasonable. Outburst floods are expected to continue as long as the Mendenhall Glacier acts as an ice dam to seal off the basin, which could span another 25 to 60 years, according to the university and science center researchers. ___ Associated Press writer Becky Bohrer in Juneau contributed to this report.
