Meteor showers happen many times a year, and “when does the meteor shower start?” depends on which shower and where you are on Earth.
Need more details
To give a useful time, it is necessary to know:
- Which meteor shower you mean (for example, Quadrantids in January, Perseids in August, Geminids in December).
- Your location or at least your time zone, because “start time” is usually given in local time and conditions vary by longitude.
Typical timing pattern
Most major showers are “active” over several days or weeks, but people usually care about:
- The activity period (for example, Perseids are active from about July 17 to August 24 in 2025).
- The best viewing window on a given night, which is usually from around midnight to dawn when the shower’s radiant is higher in the sky.
Please reply with which meteor shower you mean (name, like Perseids or Geminids) and your city or country, and a specific night if you have one in mind, and the start time can be given much more precisely.