If you look off towards the eastern horizon around 4 AM local time tomorrow and Wednesday, you might be able to see a couple of meteors thanks to the Eta Aquarids, caused by dust left behind by Halley's Comet. However, thanks to widespread cloud cover, it might be worth it to catch a few extra hours of sleep instead.

The North American Model (NAM) run this morning is predicting a fair amount of clouds across many of the more populated areas of the United States. This is a model prediction for 4AM CDT, one hour after the peak on the East Coast and two hours before the peak on the West Coast.

Most of the eastern U.S., northern Plains, and eastern Texas will be socked in by clouds in the pre-dawn hours tomorrow, with other areas in between seeing partly to mostly cloudy skies. If you're in the right spot (especially over parts of the southeast), you might be able to see a few before the sun comes up.

This is a model run for 4AM CDT on Wednesday, predicting just about the same — more clouds but over a wider area.

If you happen to miss out on this meteor shower, you may have a better opportunity to spot even more if predictions hold up and we enter the dust left behind by Comet 209P/LINEAR. The shower in a couple of weeks could be spectacular if predictions from a couple of years ago stay true — with the mid-latitudes seeing meteor rates of a few hundred per hour.

[Images via AP and College of DuPage]