The Perseid meteor shower is here this week — but so is extreme heat.
Anza-Borrego Desert State Park officials are warning stargazers coming to the park for the show to prepare for high temperatures. That includes bringing extra water and fuel, charging electronic devices, having contingency plans, and more.
Highs in the Anza-Borrego region this week are expected to hover around triple digits, topping 100F nearly every day with lows in the 70s and 80s. Air quality is also questionable for some people with sensitivities, with a large amount of dust circulating, forecasters said.
The Perseid meteor shower is one of the best-known and most popular of the year. They come from debris associated with the Swift-Tuttle/109P comet, but appear to originate from the constellation Perseus, where the name originates. The meteors appear every year from mid-July through August.
“When comets come around the Sun, the dust they emit gradually spreads into a dusty trail around their orbits,” says the NASA page on the celestial event. “Every year the Earth passes through these debris trails, which allows the bits to collide with our atmosphere where they disintegrate to create fiery and colorful streaks in the sky.”
Anza-Borrego Desert State Park is beloved among stargazers, astrophotographers, and others with an interest in the night sky, because it is one of the few International Dark Sky communities in the nation, thanks to its remote location and tight regulation of lighting. The park received its International Dark Sky Park designation in 2018.
