Table of Contents
Arizona UFO Sightings Analysis
We analyzed all 4,947 UFO sighting reports in Arizona to identify possible patterns and gain insight into the phenomenon:
- The most commonly reported UFO shape or appearance is "light" (1,097 reports, 22.18% of total).
- March is the month with the most reported UFO sightings (500 reports, 10.11% of total).
- Thursday is the weekday with the most reported UFO sightings (777 reports, 15.71% of total).
- 03/13/97 is the single date with the most UFO sightings reported (68 reports, 1.37% of total).
- 2014 is the year with the most UFO sightings reported (302 reports, 6.10% of total).
- Sightings occur more often during the night, between the hours of 20:00 - 23:59 (2,177 reports, 44.01% of total).
20 Most Recent UFO Sightings in Arizona
These Arizona UFO reports are presented as they were submitted other than paragraph breaks added for easier readability where necessary. You can click the 'Report' link to view the original report along with any photos that may have been submitted to the National UFO Reporting Center (NUFORC).
Full Report Text:
We saw in the eastern sky a large bank of very orange lights in a rectangular shape the lights lasted about 15 sec and faded out This thing was huge! The light were solid in color and faded out in about five seconds. My lady and I saw this object.
Full Report Text:
Huge disappearing fireball in PHX On April 16, 2024 from/over my backyard in Phoenix, AZ, between 7:57-7:59pm, the husb and I saw a fireball. Not like ones I’ve seen before and the ones this site says to ignore. The UAP was a solid-looking reddish orange ball with a yellowish orange (and white in middle) trail that was VERY low in the sky, like helicopter height.
I literally thought it was going to crash land cuz it was so low and looked like it was descending as it moved west in the sky. The sighting lasted 3-4 seconds ending when it disappeared; but it didn’t just vanish or go passed the horizon. The fireball disintegrated before it disappeared as if it was a targeted and taken out.
My husband thought it looked like it crashed. It didn’t look like it crashed to me but it looked like it could. Lastly, if I’m doing the arm thing right then it was US quarter size but I would describe it as being half the size of the moon.
Full Report Text:
Large brightly glowing object was traveling in a southeast direction towards my location, then just dissappered Watched an object appear northwest of me in the night sky, going to estimate 20 miles away or less. It was totally encased in the brightest light I have ever seen from any type of aircraft, the entire object was surrounded/emitting this bright white light, it appeared to be slightly more pronounced in each front, and rear corner of the craft, but the whole object was BRIGHTLY emitting light. I watched it for approximately 30 seconds as it continued towards my location then as it was just overhead and continuing onward (maybe ~92 degrees) it just disappeared.
The object didn't just go dark, best I can describe it is like it entered some location and the light just disappeared from front to back, it didn't just go dark like a light switch, it just extinguished front to back. I'm just guesstimating altitude at around 15,000 feet, it made no discernible sound, it was no ordinary aircraft with the normal flashing lights, or a helicopter with spotlights, it was not in anyway comparable.
Full Report Text:
Bright circular light with emit foggy light on left and right sides I'm not sure what we saw last night while sitting out back with friends but we all 4 saw it. It was a solid bright circular light in the center with an emitted fuzzy foggy light on the left and right sides of the craft. No red or blue lighting at all.
It was dark out so we couldn't tell if there was any type of craft. It traveled straight like an aircraft slowly for about a minute or two then it appeared to travel upward as the emitted lighting slowly faded into the center until the entire circular light was completely gone. It took less than a minute to disappear completely.
Full Report Text:
Large silent fast moving bright white light seeming to be spinning very fast and creating a vortex of dark light in front and behind We were sitting looking at the night sky constellations on 4/12/24 as it was warm, breezy and a 100% clear night with no clouds or obstructions. As we were talking a large bright light that seemed to be surrounded in fog appeared in the NNW sky at a moderate altitude, there did happen to be commercial planes in the air at that time and are captured in the video. As it came directly towards us it was completely silent and we noticed it had a strange leading a trailing cone of “Darkness” and the light was flaring out from the sides as it traveled SE at first then curved to a more ESE route and as it passed over it accelerated and disappeared out of the night sky.
As we watched the object pass over it was silent and very large for the altitude but the “fog” it was surrounded by made it difficult to discern a solid shape or mass, there were colors that rotated through and different lights in the middle of the light. In the frame by frame video there appears to be and object with smaller lights rotating as it flew by.
Full Report Text:
I witnessed and filmed an oblong object moving in the sky with no noise, a large directional light and window. On Friday 4.12.
2024 at roughly 8:10PM PST, I was standing outside my home in rural NW Arizona. I tend to stargaze, try and catch satellites or track flights going overhead. In the distance a brighter than normal light was approaching me.
It was pitch black out so the light stood out. My first thought was a helicopter or low flying aircraft but as this thing got closer, I realized it was generating no sound, had no nav lights and was coming right at me. I don’t think I could recreate the feeling I had when I realized I was looking at something I couldn’t explain.
My mammal instincts kicked in and I took cover behind a shed and as quickly as I ducked for cover I immediately got my phone out…deep in my mind I knew no one would believe me if I told them what I saw. I had a clear view. It was 8:10 PM PST and it had just become night.
The light I witnessed was in front of an object and generated a large beam ahead of it, probably the width of the entire bow of the craft. Directly behind it was a shadow of what I could clearly see as an oblong shaped craft moving steadily through the sky above me. There was a rectangular “window” where I could clearly see inside…and I mean clearly.
As it passed over, I stayed somewhat hidden, called my wife and sent her the video. Within seconds after calling her, 5-6 flashes of colorful light illuminated the sky above the mountains and the craft was gone.
Full Report Text:
Flying craft, illuminated, traveling horizontally at approx 2500 ft, then suddenly vertical, gone from view in 4 seconds. On Friday. April 12th at approx 8:10 PM, my wife and I and 2 of our friends were on the patio, when one of us pointed to the sky and told the others "what is that?".
We all looked up to see what we thought was an airplane, but noticed there was no flashing white or red lights as airplanes normally have. The object was moving in a direction from North to South, and was close enough for us to see a strange "white haze" or glow surrounding the craft as it moved. The sky in this part of the Arizona desert was very clear, with no storm clouds, fog, or even a hint of humidity that would explain the white haze or glow emanating from the craft.
We watched the object fly horizontally like a normal plane until it was just slightly above our heads, then started going vertical in an instant. Within maybe 4 second, the craft got smaller and smaller until gone. Strangely, the glow or haze surrounding the craft disappeared almost instantly as it went vertical and the object was more like a white dot in the sky…….
getting smaller as it went out of sight.
Full Report Text:
2 disk silver objects traveling at extreme speed disappeared into a cloud vortex We saw 2 UFO's at the grand canyon yesterday! There was a wierd cloud formation that looked like a vortex or wave crashing. Then two disks flew side by side, one just ahead of the other at extreme speed and vanished into what looked like a big silver orb hidden in a round cloud vortex and poof - gone! Time stamp on the photos show entire event happened between 10:24 and 10:25 am. We caught these photos while driving near the grand canyon entrance.
We had perfect visibility and a straight ahead view. We were looking at the strange cloud and were shocked when we saw the objects speeding toward it. Then in an instant, they disappeared.
The red circle is the orb hidden in the clouds where they instantly disappeared !.
Full Report Text:
Two silent objects slowly drifting and changing direction of travel. The objects appeared to be 1000 to 3000 feet above ground. Completely silent and flashed repeatedly.
I took photos with a phone which only reveal a round shape surrounded by a bright halo. In one picture it turns into 3 objects of like appearance while another photo has it turning into four orbs or spheres. I live 40 miles by car from the largest nuclear power generation station in the US and 3 miles from Luke Airforce Base.
I am quite familiar with all types of aircraft and have a commercial pilot certification.
Full Report Text:
Bright light appeared in sky, traveled 2-3 min, light dissipated and could no longer see. Outside looking at the stars with my daughter tonight and it's very windy out. There's an approaching rainstorm, but the sky was clear still.
All of a sudden, this glowing light floats by and appeared to be about low cloud height. It was very quiet. No noise.
After it traveled a little ways all of a sudden the light surrounding it dissipated and we couldn't see it anymore. My daughter snapped a picture of it and when we zoom in on her phone. It looked like a glowing bar.
We didn't think it could be a drone because of the high winds last night.
Full Report Text:
Seen something that looked like a laynard in the sky cruising by Noticed something in the sky that was black and Iong just cruise on by.
Full Report Text:
3 orbs moving in unnatural flying patterns We saw 3 orb likes objects moving in formation constantly changing directions with and against the wind. They would form shapes like trangles with one leaving the formation and coming back to it. We have never seen any thing like it.
What we saw was not possible with anything known. The orbs then climbed to an allitude out of eyesight. This was the middle of the day.
Full Report Text:
A slowly streaking orange glow dispersed into many fragments before disappearing and then there were formations made by pins of light Around 9:57 pm my fiancée noticed an orange streak of light in the sky. I was riding passenger and 5-10 seconds passed before I got my phone out to try to record it. The orange streak was descending and then seemed to disperse into many pieces and when it did that it was like chromatic aberration — the pieces looked like there were becoming blurred and seeing it looked unnatural like watching something in slow motion.
Then the pieces disappeared as they neared the horizon. I kept looking to the horizon to see if I could see anything and from the direction we were driving in I could see lights above a mountain range making formations of triangles and moving extremely fast. If I had to guess I would say they were above the Sacaton mountains.
We ended up getting off the exit 185 to take a quick drive through the mountains to see if we saw anything and drove back home toward casa grande afterward. Marissa then said she saw a grey streak of light come down from the sky very quickly.
Full Report Text:
After pulling out of Crumbl cookies heading west down Waddell Rd I saw a V shaped object in the sky moving in weird angles. The object was shaped like a V and it was maneuvering through the clouds. I was headed west down Waddell Rd and it was headed east above me in the clouds so it flew over my vehicle.
When it got directly above my vehicle in the sky I could no longer see it. I had my windows down and the object didn’t have the usual noise like a jet would.
Full Report Text:
Flew in a large oval, about 2 miles, size of a car, flying about 12,000 ft high about 40(?) mph Suoer bright, fluctuating red to orange, turned blue before disappearing, flew steady not erratic. No sound Video is only half because I lost time retrieving my phone Close up pic is edited for clearest photo.
Full Report Text:
Bright white with some translucency (seeing “aura” listed as a characteristic below is appropriate). One of us saw some red, also. My husband was sitting in the hot tub and saw a bright white object appear in the sky.
It did not move from one point to another. He called to me and I brought out our cellphones & binoculars. It was still light enough outside that no stars were visible but this light was very bright.
Clouds covered it periodically but it would be visible again when the clouds moved. As the sky darkened and we began to see stars, it eventually dimmed enough that we didn’t see it. Or, perhaps it was hidden by clouds for long enough that we missed seeing it again.
We did not see any signs of it moving. I think most people wouldn’t have noticed it. My husband likes looking for satellites when he’s in the hot tub so he’s often looking at the sky.
It was the brightness/whiteness that caught his eye.
Full Report Text:
Balloon like object that appeared to be connected to each other elevated in SE direction before moving in the N distance. I contacted John M Powell to try determining if his 'Ascender 9' could be what i was looking at, but no response: https://x.com/johnmpowell1/status/1764701541251138012?s=46&t=xX0NCnPOKvjRLue2TwBi3A My video is https://x.
com/zdrxgon/status/1764737137277309101?s=46&t=xX0NCnPOKvjRLue2TwBi3A.
Full Report Text:
Ship was small, flying just above the light poles on the highway. It was a cigar shape but had a single fin on the back end. I seen this craft off to my right as I'm heading north on the 19.
It was the middle of the day and this thing was flying low. And it was small. Maybe 2 feet long, if that.
I could tell because of how close it was to the light poles as it passed across the highway to my left side. And by how close it was to being directly over my car as it crossed the highway. It was a dark grey cigar shaped craft, and may have had some kind of window in the front.
It appeared to have a single fin on the back of it like a plane. But their were no wings and no moving parts. No sound.
It flew kind of slow as it passed over the highway. Strangely it felt like it wanted to be seen. It was the middle of the day, flying that low and as slow as it moved right over a highway.
This wasn't a drone.
Full Report Text:
Similar to a shooting star, but did not fizzle out. Lasted the entirety of the horizon. It was a single white light (no flashing), like the size of a star in the sky.
Reminded me of a shooting star, but it was moving quick at a consistent speed. I didn’t hear it pass when it traveled above like I would an airplane it was silent. I followed it all the way across the sky until it disappeared into the clouds.
Full Report Text:
Fast moving, silent light, moving east to west. It was shortly after sundown, so kind of dark. I was stargazing, I was facing south, and a light came into my vision on my left, the east, and flying west.
The first thing I noticed was the speed. Approximately twice as fast as the passenger airplanes that typically fly over. I didn’t see flashing lights of any kind, just a single non flashing white, relatively small light.
Because it was relatively dark, I couldn’t see a body shape or outline, however I was just bright enough that I could faintly see an exhaust or trail behind it. There was no sound that I could tell coming from the light. It stayed at a constant speed and unchanging straight line.
No abrupt movements, of any kind. It appeared to stay at the same altitude. I noticed that it appeared to fly under the clouds.
The clouds at the time were thin wispy cirrus type clouds. It flew far enough to fade off and out of sight.
Arizona UFO Sightings By Shape
This is a standardized set of shapes a UFO report can be filed under.
Shape / Appearance | Sightings | % Of Total |
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Light | 1,097 reported sightings | 22.18% of all reports |
Circle | 502 reported sightings | 10.15% of all reports |
Triangle | 385 reported sightings | 7.78% of all reports |
Other | 383 reported sightings | 7.74% of all reports |
Unknown | 318 reported sightings | 6.43% of all reports |
Fireball | 316 reported sightings | 6.39% of all reports |
Sphere | 290 reported sightings | 5.86% of all reports |
Disk | 245 reported sightings | 4.95% of all reports |
Formation | 231 reported sightings | 4.67% of all reports |
Oval | 190 reported sightings | 3.84% of all reports |
Changing | 161 reported sightings | 3.25% of all reports |
Cigar | 103 reported sightings | 2.08% of all reports |
Rectangle | 96 reported sightings | 1.94% of all reports |
Flash | 83 reported sightings | 1.68% of all reports |
Cylinder | 72 reported sightings | 1.46% of all reports |
Diamond | 63 reported sightings | 1.27% of all reports |
Chevron | 53 reported sightings | 1.07% of all reports |
Egg | 48 reported sightings | 0.97% of all reports |
Teardrop | 45 reported sightings | 0.91% of all reports |
Cone | 29 reported sightings | 0.59% of all reports |
Orb | 24 reported sightings | 0.49% of all reports |
Cross | 15 reported sightings | 0.30% of all reports |
Star | 9 reported sightings | 0.18% of all reports |
Arizona UFO Sightings By Month
This data point is an aggregation of all UFO reports by the month the sighting occured in.
Month | Sightings | % Of Total |
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March | 500 reported sightings | 10.11% of all reports |
November | 455 reported sightings | 9.20% of all reports |
October | 444 reported sightings | 8.98% of all reports |
June | 421 reported sightings | 8.51% of all reports |
September | 418 reported sightings | 8.45% of all reports |
May | 407 reported sightings | 8.23% of all reports |
April | 396 reported sightings | 8.00% of all reports |
July | 390 reported sightings | 7.88% of all reports |
February | 382 reported sightings | 7.72% of all reports |
December | 377 reported sightings | 7.62% of all reports |
August | 369 reported sightings | 7.46% of all reports |
January | 363 reported sightings | 7.34% of all reports |
Arizona UFO Sightings By Weekday
This data point is an aggregation of all UFO reports by the day of the week the sighting occured on.
Weekday | Sightings | % Of Total |
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Thursday | 777 reported sightings | 15.71% of all reports |
Saturday | 761 reported sightings | 15.38% of all reports |
Tuesday | 733 reported sightings | 14.82% of all reports |
Friday | 710 reported sightings | 14.35% of all reports |
Wednesday | 709 reported sightings | 14.33% of all reports |
Monday | 628 reported sightings | 12.69% of all reports |
Sunday | 604 reported sightings | 12.21% of all reports |
Arizona UFO Sightings By Date (Top 5)
This data point is an aggregation of all UFO reports by the date the sighting occured on, limited to the top 5 dates with the most sightings.
Date | Sightings | % Of Total |
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03/13/97 | 68 reported sightings | 1.37% of all reports |
11/07/15 | 32 reported sightings | 0.65% of all reports |
11/11/19 | 21 reported sightings | 0.42% of all reports |
12/22/17 | 13 reported sightings | 0.26% of all reports |
07/12/00 | 11 reported sightings | 0.22% of all reports |
Arizona UFO Sightings By Time
This data point is an aggregation of all UFO reports by the time of day the sighting occured during. We took logical 4 hour windows in order to split the day into early morning, morning, afternoon, evening, night, and late night buckets for this analysis.
Time Of Day | Hours | Sightings | % Of Total |
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Night | 20:00 - 23:59 | 2,177 reported sightings | 44.01% of all reports |
Evening | 16:00 - 19:59 | 1,161 reported sightings | 23.47% of all reports |
Late night | 00:00 - 03:59 | 582 reported sightings | 11.76% of all reports |
Early morning | 04:00 - 07:59 | 384 reported sightings | 7.76% of all reports |
Afternoon | 12:00 - 15:59 | 339 reported sightings | 6.85% of all reports |
Morning | 08:00 - 11:59 | 279 reported sightings | 5.64% of all reports |
Years with Reported UFO Sightings in Arizona
These are running counts of how many UFO sighting reports are filed per year in Arizona.
Cities with Reported UFO Sightings in Arizona
These are running counts of how many UFO sighting reports are filed per city in Arizona