From: Marco Langbroek, Dutch Meteor Society (DMS)
Date: Sun, 19 Nov 2000 19:02:12 +0100

A quick note: we (Koen Miskotte, Carl Johannink and me) just returned from a
last-minute campaign to southern Portugal (we decided to book a last minute
flight for Nov.16-19 on the afternoon of November 15 because of very bad
weather in the Netherlands).

Observing at Almodovar (~75 km north of Faro) we witnessed an impressive
show on November 17-18. I do not have real data available yet (hope to
supply those in due time...), but we observed from ~1:30 UT to ~6 UT and
continuously had rates well into the multiple meteors per minute (from 2-3
up to 7-8/minute), even when the radiant still was quite low in the sky,
with Lm's at around +6.3 for me personally (notwithstanding moonlight!!) and
very clear sky. Our field impression, and this seems to be backed by a look
at some very preliminary raw data from one of us (JOHCA), is that there were
TWO distinct peaks this night, one close to 2UT and a second near 3:30 UT.

Many bright meteors this night  including several sub-zero events, and 3
major fireballs (a -6 and two -8's) with long persistent trains (one up to
10 minutes).
In the list of my Leonid experiences from 1995 onwards this night ranks 3th
best in impressiveness, after the 1999 storm and 1998 fireball component.

The nigh before, 16-17, we observed from ~2:30 to ~6 UT. Although modest,
rates were definitely ENHANCED during the last 3 hours and at least twice as
high as normal annual Leonid activity. To me, it was quite similar to the
1995 enhancement in outlook.

True data will follow later; still have to listen the tapes....