© Lorenz And Avelar/Getty Images
According to a new UFO reference book, self-published by two UFO experts, California is the top state with the most UFO sightings in the country. California is followed by Florida, Texas, Washington and Pennsylvania respectively. New York came in at 6th followed by Arizona, Illinois, Michigan and Ohio.
The "UFO Sightings Desk Reference: United States of America 2001-2015" is a deep data dive into UFO sightings reported to The National UFO Reporting Center (NUFORC) and the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) from 2001 to 2015, explains author and UFO columnist Cheryl Costa.
She used both databases every week looking for New York sightings for her column in the weekly Syracuse New Times, she said, and started publishing tables for number of sightings in each New York county, shape of UFOs, when they were reported, etc.
Response to those stats was strong, she said. So when her spouse and co-author Linda Miller Costa got the idea of working through the reports to see just how far down they could drill for every state in the country, they started digging. The end result a year later is the 374-page desk reference.
She said there have been more than 120,000 UFO sightings reported from 2001-2015 in the U.S. She didn't want to give away all the stats (you know, they do want you to get the book) but she said California holds down the top position with almost 16,000 sightings, and Los Angeles County outranks 40 individual states with 3,200 sightings.
Here are the five most recent California sightings according to The National UFO Reporting Center:
- Miramar on March 21, 2017
- Van Nuys on March 19, 2017
- Palm Springs on March 18, 2017
- Riverside on March 17, 2017
- San Diego on March 15, 2017
"That didn't sound right," she said. "I went out to one of the national data bases and the bar chart (of sightings) goes up like a rocket launch."
And, she added, the reports were not from clearly crazy people.
"I found that the majority of sighting reports where by people who were very sincere, and it had energized them to find a place to report what they saw," she said. "They wanted to get this off their chest."
A couple other trends she noticed were, one, "the people who see the majority of sightings are outside having a smoke, walking the dog or outside smoking walking the dog." And, two, "there's a seasonal pattern." For most of the country, reported sightings begin to climb during spring and summer. In places without notable shifts from winter to summer โ Texas, Florida and Arizona, for example โ the number of reporting's stays relatively flat. Basically, she figures, come spring and summer, people are simply outside more.
Jake Ellison can be reached at jakeellisonjournalism@gmail.com. Follow Jake on Twitter at twitter.com/Jake_News. Also, swing by and *LIKE* his page on Facebook. If Google Plus is your thing, check out our science coverage here.
Reader Comments
1. CA has the highest level of mental illness in the world let alone the country or
2. CA has the highest alien population .....
You decide.
The big thing that bugs me about ufo research is that there is not to good evidence. Usually a grainy or zoomed out image that lacks detail and proportion. I'm not saying they are all faked, but there's a lack going on.
Thus we have a total of 0.985 X 38.8M X 2 eyes = 76.436M eyeballs from 38.8M folks. 76.436 M paired eyeballs X .0985 of witnesses presumably with legally 'reasonable' ocularity, in real stereo vision ....
Oh f*** it. The point? Cal. is a huge state, (#2 in the contiguous U.S. Lower 48). Then factor in all the ships from the vasty mighty Pacific*
coming into port, with their pronouncements of what they'd seen: Giant Squids; 120 ft.Blue Whales, and I was with Ed Harris in 'The Abyss"...
"N ow there's a tale lad,
I tell you true,
Now let me tell you a tale or two"
So the second largest state, with its huge coastline (where such reports, I am certain, are kept) makes it clear that my homestate, Cal. will always win this one. Then look at number two...Good ol' FLA, home of most rocket launches in the US, Plus a coastline perhaps longer than California. (I grant, there are places where their shores are nothing but fyords, which look like combs, and which have 'longest coastline North and West of the Kolyma, etc.)
Point hopefully made, I am done.
R.C.
*Aye, I saw the Great White Whale...."
(Sadly, it was only when I woke up when that side of the bed had collapsed under the weight. . . . "What did I do last night?" , I wondered.....)
R.C.
R.C.
Let's also not forget that during WWII there was a major defensive action committed by the American armed forces over Los Angeles.
It is still undetermined what they were shooting at, but there are some interesting photos to peruse.
Also, native American legends from this area tell of craft in the skies and meetings with otherworldly creatures along the shores.
This should not be taken lightly. There is something going on in California that has nothing to do with Hollywood, smoking weed or trying to impress your neighbors.
Also take into account the legends and stories of a massive underground city beneath Los Angeles and this area could potentially be a stand off point between two different forces of which we know very little and yet have been on this planet, arguably, longer than we have in our present state.
The craft was angled so that its flat side was facing my direction and it was utterly silent and standing still, or possibly moving very slowly.
I will never forget that image. I was a creative and imaginative child but at that time the only type of ufo that I had any awareness of were the circular, saucer type craft.
There is no reason that I would have imagined a triangular craft.
The other odd thing about the sighting was that I was completely calm about the whole thing. In fact this is only the third or fourth time that I have related this story.
I very clearly remember noticing the craft, looking at it as I continued my walk home and then thinking nothing of it for years. Until I saw the stories about the Arizona sightings of triangular crafts, that is.
Then it all came flooding back with incredible clarity.
I was 11 years old in 1986.