Well...since this question was posed in 1997 a lot has certainly come and gone! Instead of answering this question for purely historical purposes, let me give some online tools that should help you decide if future comets will be visible from your location. Here are some resources you may find helpful.
The NASA/JPL Comet page gives a 'Comets that wil be visible' inventory of the known periodis comets, which gets updated. Here is an example:
C/1999 T1 (McNaught-Hartley) IAU Circular 7273 (Oct. 11, 1999) reports the discovery of a comet by Robert H. McNaught, Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Siding Spring Observatory, on a plate taken by Malcolm Hartley with the 1.2-m U.K. Schmidt Telescope. This comet is currently 14-15th magnitude. According to the orbit given on MPC 37479, the comet will reach a perihelion distance of 1.17 AU on Dec. 13, 2000. C/1999 T1 probably will be picked up visually within a matter of weeks. It is a Southern Hemisphere object and will slowly brighten. By September 2000, the comet will be an easy telesopic object and perhaps a faint binocular object. At declination ~-43, the comet will still be a Southern Hemisphere object. Moving east and north, the comet will move south of the Sun the comet will be lost in solar glare as it moves into the morning sky. Emerging in late December 2000, C/1999 T1 will emerge for Northern Hemisphere observers. It will be near peak brightness (m1~6.5). Southern Hemisphere observers should pick it up somewhat later. The comet will move north and fade. In March 2001, the comet will become northern circumpolar object. The comet should be followed through the first half of 2001.
Another resource I use is Sky and Telescope which has a Comet Page.
Copyright 1997 Dr. Sten Odenwald
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