Specialists were rather optimistics: Geminids were to deserve a display of quality during the hours around the maximum, predicted on December 14th, at 5h UT. Actually, from its discovery on, the Geminid meteor shower has seen its activity growing regularly... Until when? Scientists can hardly say, but they were not wrong in their 2009 predictions, which was really good!
According to the preliminary analysis of the IMO, based on the received visual reports of more than 70 observers around the world, the maximum ZHR was reached around 00h-02h UT on December 14th. It's a little bit sooner than expected. But it's interesting to have a further look at the activity profile, which shows that there seems to be two distinct maxima with ZHRs close to 130 at 00h UT, and two hours later, at 02h UT. Then, the activity fell a bit, before staying constant around ZHR = 90. Eventually, a third outburst (ZHR = 100-120) occured at 20h UT on 12/14. Then, rates plummeted: the annual activity of the Geminids had ended!
In France, despite a quite uncertain weather, many observers were surprised to see their skies clearing up, allowing them to admire the show in the night of 13-14 December. That was the occasion of spotting dozens or thousands of Geminids striking the skies, some of them being quite bright!