Well, after being cheated out of last year's display by a terrible fog, I finally got to see a real Leonid show this morning!
It wasn't looking good when I went to bed last night--thick clouds around midnight here in central Virginia. At 5:10 EST I went outside to check the weather, just in case. I spotted 6 bright meteors within a couple of minutes, and decided it was worth waking up my wife as well. There was still a lingering layer of thin clouds, so it certainly wasn't optimal, but I'm not complaining--It was quite a show!
Despite only being able to view a narrow portion of the sky at one time (due to the tall trees around my house), we saw approximately over 175 meteors in 30 minutes time (5:20-5:50 EST)! About a third left visible trails that lingered for at least a few seconds. A number of times, we saw 2-3 simultaneous meteors. A few of them rivaled Jupiter in brightness. Activity trailed off quickly after 5:50, as the rising sun washed everything out.
Perhaps the greatest thing I could say about this year's display is that my wife, who is not particularly interested in astronomy, doesn't like going out in the cold, and HATES to get up early, actually said, "Wow. This was worth getting up for!"
(I guess I should also point out that several of my co-workers report that they saw only a very few meteors, or even nothing at all. The radio is reporting that many of the folks who drove up onto the Blue Ridge Parkway to watch from the overlooks were clouded out as well. I guess I just happened to find a thin spot in the cloud cover.)
Neil