the leonid meteor shower peaks around 17 november of each year. about every 33 years, the leonid shower produces a big meteor storm, peaking at thousands of meteors per hour. leonid storms gave birth to the term "meteor shower" when it was first realised, during the november 1833 storm, that the meteors radiated from near the star gamma leonis. the last leonid storms were in 1999, 2001 (two), and 2002 (two). before that, there were storms in 1767, 1799, 1833, 1866, 1867, and 1966. when the leonid shower is not "storming" it is less active than the perseids.