Table of Contents
California UFO Sightings Analysis
We analyzed all 635 UFO sighting reports in California from 2020 to identify possible patterns and gain insight into the phenomenon:
- The most commonly reported UFO shape or appearance is "light" (166 reports, 26.14% of total).
- April is the month with the most reported UFO sightings (98 reports, 15.43% of total).
- Thursday is the weekday with the most reported UFO sightings (118 reports, 18.58% of total).
- 04/16/20 is the single date with the most UFO sightings reported (26 reports, 4.09% of total).
- Sightings occur more often during the night, between the hours of 20:00 - 23:59 (266 reports, 41.89% of total).
California UFO Sighting Reports in 2020
This is a sampling of 20 California UFO reports from 2020, 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:
4 orange lights , one behind the other. Then a 5th one going faster to catch up. One by one they all went dark.
five orange lights , round, about the size of the letter O in a persons normal handwriting but up in the sky , of course,. The first four were in line ,or formation, one behind the other. They were coming in from about 30 degrees to the west, or to the left, from where North is on the compass.
And then we saw the 5th one. It had been lagging behind and was flying faster than the 4 so I“m assuming it was trying to catch up. They were silent, flying about as high as helicopters do.
Then one by one they went dark. Lasted about 3 minutes. It was 11:10 or 23:10 military time no clouds in the full, moonlit evening sky.
And even with binoculars we could not see the shape of the aircraft.
Full Report Text:
Two Light Orbs Appear for 5 Minutes in Night Sky Count: 2 Shape: round orbs Colors: both reddish/orangeish/ yellowish Sounds from Orbs: silent Light: the light glowed and emitted light rays from the center, and the center of the orb was the brightest part. The light did not twinkle, change color, or blink. The light faded and disappeared in plain sight after 5 minutes of viewing.
The light did not reappear in any other direction even after watching for another 5 minutes. The fading was simple, as it was see through after it faded away into as the night sky. Movement: The orbs did not make any quick movement from right, left, up or down.
They simply traveled towards us in one direction. Travel direction: they were traveling from the northwest direction coming towards us. They were separated by thumbs distance.
When i extend my arm and raise my hand, use my thumb,and close 1 eye, the distance in between the two objects were a thumbs distance aka the distance between my wrist to my thumb nail. Altitude:The 2 orbs were at different altitudes, one orb was about 45 degrees lower in altitude when compared to the higher altitude orb, and the lower altitude orb appeared to be furthest linear distance from us. Linear distance from viewer: estimated to be between quarter mile to a mile.
Any obstructions: No. But there are 20' tall building and they did not obstruct the orbs. No trees were taller then the buildings.
Viewed: standing on the ground at around 100' elevation Weather: clear night no sky cover no clouds. I could see other stars in the sky. Fireworks: In CA people celebrate the east coast new year at 9:00pm so i could hear fireworks but i could not see them.
There was no smog in the air from any of the fireworks i was hearing. i couldn't smell any smoke from fireworks either.
Full Report Text:
Morro bay orbs New Years Eve2020 Dark sky before NewYears Bright Red Orbs came from north to south along Pacific coast line flew singular and some double from east to angle to west over Pacific Ocean . couldn’t believe what we were seeing didn’t even grab our phones! Don’t know why!.
Full Report Text:
Cluster bubble object in air. Heavy thunderstorm in area (rare event) sky was clear but gray, light rain but sounds of thunder. Object looked like a cluster of bubbles, it was still just hovering but spinning towards my right.
It was dark metal grey, no lights or other movement or noise . I got chills and looked away and went back indoors because i got the chills from being startled by such object. Whatever it was it was advanced technology.
Didn’t look like drone or helicopter, and was definitely not a balloon.
Full Report Text:
Orb of light, splits into two orbs. Orb of light, flew over my home, then hung out, in the north/east skies, then split into 2 orbs of light.
Full Report Text:
multiple real leo orbit satellites beaming property and individual sighting of this satellite began around January 2017, shortly after space x launch in December 2017 and dropping payload overboard with additions to for years, its a signal blasting EMF radio frequency emissions satellites with viewable signal beams, onto property with minors and onto individual, it has multiple illicit communication bands . the orange satellites that form a static infrared band. with operators targeting use the remote sensory as to tack and run emissions drifts on power grid and property known as the white and blueish band aka (evil blue) has a iridium soda flare connection that runs blue emissions on top of trees then individual with telescoping imaging, together they form a satellite infrared radio spectroscopy that is being used for exploitation and malicious intent.
There is as well a large boomerang or magnet band as seen by south american countries launched way back when President Reagan and 1st lady Nancy war on drugs. (replicated) FAA flight path includes multiple large white satellites of radio frequency > emissions deploying caustic emissions for load and launch by operators targeting individual. All of these satellites form a large illegal pitch radio field of 24/7 connection > these illegal actions have taken place since 2018 and the deregulation of federal space laws to anyone with cash can blast a satellites.
space x has not responded, space force has not responded, this may be the 1st crime against the small satellites for exploration in america.
Full Report Text:
2 reddish yellow pulsating slow moving lights hovering over Los Angeles Two reddish orange glowing lights hovered approx 200-300 hundred feet apart from each other. I was facing north on Temple City Blvd north of Las Tunas Drive, Temple City when I saw this. They floated about a third ways above the horizon.
These lights slowly moved west, the one to my right moved a little faster than the one to my left. The one to my right faded away before the one to my left. It was like the one on my left was floating over El Monte and the other over Rosemead, Ca.
Round slow pulsating lights, yellow centers red outer solid lights. Each color pulsates separately. Equal in and size.
Like street light sized but high in the sky. I was driving when I saw this and at 1st I thought it was a meteor but they didn’t move quickly or fade and streak like a meteor does. Thank you MH Temple City Ca.
Full Report Text:
Outside of my window on Christmas day (from second story apartment), I had a strange feeling to look outside and so I did. I noticed immediately a strange ball of lights that changed various colors about 40 feet from my bedroom window it was almost so close, enough for me to see it's round sphere like shape. I know it noticed me because it flew so fast that I just grabbed my phone to record.
Almost a full 45 minutes it was in the area going from one spot to another and then disappearing and the crazy thing is know it was a UFO. I know there are no man made space craft that when going invisible, turn the color Burgundy. I have many pieces of video footage from close up zoomed in video footage of it and am hesitant to upload on social media.
The colors it changed was beautiful. While everyone was at home and enjoying Christmas, I was recording something super cool!!!.
Full Report Text:
((NUFORC Note: Witness provides no detailed information; elects to remain totally anonymous. PD)).
Full Report Text:
Bright Orb seen below plane level at Mach 1+ Speeds A light apparition appeared out of no where in the sky at about plane level. The object looked to be almost a shooting star, yet undoubtedly close. It didn’t come from behind us, as we saw the object suddenly become visible out of no where (in front of us) before flying off into the direction we were heading: East on Interstate 40.
Speed was much too fast for any plane, drone, or shooting star, flying at Mach 1+ Speeds. We can confirm that it was not a plane flying out of and into clouds, as the sky is clear and stars are clear and visible. No shape of the aircraft could be seen- only a large, bright orb.
Full Report Text:
saw a glowing object.shape not discerned. travelling somewhat slowly.
direction roughly Northeast to Southwest. large and somewhat Long trail of debris behind object. molten material falling from the end of fire trail.
disappeared behind southern Hill. it had a glowing amber color. object made no discernible sound.
Full Report Text:
Point of light streaks across the sky over Los Angeles I was doing some star gazing this evening when I noticed a high altitude light streak across the sky from East to West in a matter of seconds. At first I thought it was a meteor but it did not have the burn tail of the usual meteoroid hitting the atmosphere. This was a point of light like any other in the night sky racing across the sky.
Full Report Text:
Streak of horizontal light over Long Beach We were looking up at the southwestern sky for the Jupiter/Saturn conjunction on December 21. It was close to sunset but there was still light in the sky. Out of nowhere a flash of light streaked HORIZONTALLY to the right of us.
This object was not falling, it was flying absolutely horizontal and traveling south, away from us. The object was close and low. It was a very bright, white streak of light with a blue color in the front and then the long white streak or tail.
As fast as it appeared, it disappeared. The tail caught up with the front. It sped up and vanished.
This was a 3-4 second event. It made no noise. I turned to my friend and asked if he just saw that.
He said yes. Again, the object was flying horizontally. I have never seen anything like this before.
Full Report Text:
Driving northbound on the 101 in Thousand Oaks. Saw a bright white flash in the sky at my 12 o’clock position over Newbury Park that lasted approx. 1-3 seconds, and then was gone.
The sun was still out and I didn’t see any aircraft flying after seeing the light.
Full Report Text:
Triangular object to the south of Palm Springs/Cathedral City, CA over the mountain. Would zig-zag side to side and at times appeared brighter. It backlit clouds.
Seemed to have the colors of red, green, and white lights in a bar triangular shape.
Full Report Text:
Crafts were flying individually low flying landing on apartment buildings some were red and some were white lights and made sound when.
Full Report Text:
UAP - 15 bright amber lights flying in formation over Oakley, California Oakley, California, Saturday, December 19, 2020 @ 22:35 hrs. (Pacific) – An Uber driver traveling east on highway 4 bypass, witnessed 15 bright amber lights flying west in formation at about 1000 feet elevation over the city of Oakley, California. They were magnificent as they flew in a pattern of a long string of amber lights, one after the other, at close proximity to the driver within a mile away.
They came as close as a half mile away. The string of lights were separated by a trio of lights in a triangular pattern, with 6 lights to the front and 6 lights trailing. All the lights were identical bright amber.
There were no red or green directional lights, no red beacons, and no bright landing lights. They kind of had the luminosity of military flares in the night sky. But, these weren't flares, as they were clearly lights.
They moved with the behavior of small airplanes. But, if these were planes, why so many, flying in close formation, without directional lights? As the driver turned south on the freeway, they could be seen in the rear view mirror turning to the NW, still in formation. The sighting lasted about 30 seconds.
Can anyone explain what they might have been?.
Full Report Text:
candy cane striped hand holding a blue capsule, visible on Apple Maps at these coordinates: Lat: 33.258239 Lon: -116.776958 Red and white object (like a candy cane striped hand) appears very close to the ground, appears to be holding a blue capsule? It is also casting a shadow onto the ground.
Satellite imagery of the sighting. On Apple Maps please go to these coordinates: Lat: 33.258239 Lon: -116.
776958 Location: NEAR LAKE HENSHAW. Cleveland National Forest Santa Ysabel, CA 92070 United States.
Full Report Text:
I’ve seen UFO’s as a child and seen them in my room and memories of being on a ship tracing I remember looking at a section of the ship wondering where i was at then my mind opened a view so i can look below over woods, my friends that I’m close with have now been abducted and now at the office a woman had an encounter at Stockton, cal. Over 8 mile road very low and other witnesses. I don’t why I’m been chosen for people.
Full Report Text:
Multiple similar sized objects not flying as expected with bright lights underneath. I first saw one then two then three and they appeared to interact with each other. It was too high to give a shape.
The best I can say is a speck. I thought at first they were high flying snow geese because they were white. But then I did not see them flapping their wings so that wasn’t it and they couldn’t be gliding.
So a few minutes later I started seeing lights underneath to which you could only see a bright light and no longer the white speck. Another person saw more behind me and she counted 12. I saw 3 to 4 at best.
How high mid altitude below 5K feet. They were not moving like an aircraft or helicopter or jet or bird or balloon. I launched my drone and flew up to 400 ft AGL and scrolled my gimbal to 30 degrees high and hit the record button.
I then rotated in place a few times not knowing if I got anything. Upon review I did not see the white specks nor the bright lights but it was either my strobe light under the belly that was reflecting off of t! he atmosphere or I was just under the objects and I was picking up a peripheral burst of lights as I rotated underneath them. God’s Truth.
California UFO Sightings From 2020 By Shape
This is a standardized set of shapes a UFO report can be filed under.
Shape / Appearance | Sightings | % Of Total |
---|---|---|
Light | 166 reported sightings | 26.14% of all reports |
Circle | 97 reported sightings | 15.28% of all reports |
Formation | 57 reported sightings | 8.98% of all reports |
Other | 41 reported sightings | 6.46% of all reports |
Triangle | 38 reported sightings | 5.98% of all reports |
Sphere | 35 reported sightings | 5.51% of all reports |
Unknown | 26 reported sightings | 4.09% of all reports |
Fireball | 22 reported sightings | 3.46% of all reports |
Disk | 16 reported sightings | 2.52% of all reports |
Oval | 16 reported sightings | 2.52% of all reports |
Changing | 14 reported sightings | 2.20% of all reports |
Flash | 12 reported sightings | 1.89% of all reports |
Cigar | 10 reported sightings | 1.57% of all reports |
Cylinder | 7 reported sightings | 1.10% of all reports |
Egg | 7 reported sightings | 1.10% of all reports |
Chevron | 7 reported sightings | 1.10% of all reports |
Rectangle | 7 reported sightings | 1.10% of all reports |
Teardrop | 7 reported sightings | 1.10% of all reports |
Diamond | 4 reported sightings | 0.63% of all reports |
Cross | 2 reported sightings | 0.31% of all reports |
Orb | 1 reported sightings | 0.16% of all reports |
California UFO Sightings From 2020 By Month
This data point is an aggregation of all UFO reports by the month the sighting occured in.
Month | Sightings | % Of Total |
---|---|---|
April | 98 reported sightings | 15.43% of all reports |
March | 74 reported sightings | 11.65% of all reports |
February | 71 reported sightings | 11.18% of all reports |
July | 57 reported sightings | 8.98% of all reports |
January | 55 reported sightings | 8.66% of all reports |
August | 50 reported sightings | 7.87% of all reports |
November | 44 reported sightings | 6.93% of all reports |
May | 44 reported sightings | 6.93% of all reports |
December | 42 reported sightings | 6.61% of all reports |
June | 39 reported sightings | 6.14% of all reports |
October | 32 reported sightings | 5.04% of all reports |
September | 29 reported sightings | 4.57% of all reports |
California UFO Sightings From 2020 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 |
---|---|---|
Thursday | 118 reported sightings | 18.58% of all reports |
Wednesday | 116 reported sightings | 18.27% of all reports |
Tuesday | 97 reported sightings | 15.28% of all reports |
Saturday | 96 reported sightings | 15.12% of all reports |
Monday | 75 reported sightings | 11.81% of all reports |
Sunday | 67 reported sightings | 10.55% of all reports |
Friday | 66 reported sightings | 10.39% of all reports |
California UFO Sightings From 2020 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 |
---|---|---|
04/16/20 | 26 reported sightings | 4.09% of all reports |
03/26/20 | 14 reported sightings | 2.20% of all reports |
04/15/20 | 13 reported sightings | 2.05% of all reports |
04/18/20 | 11 reported sightings | 1.73% of all reports |
03/04/20 | 9 reported sightings | 1.42% of all reports |
California UFO Sightings From 2020 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 |
---|---|---|---|
Night | 20:00 - 23:59 | 266 reported sightings | 41.89% of all reports |
Evening | 16:00 - 19:59 | 118 reported sightings | 18.58% of all reports |
Early morning | 04:00 - 07:59 | 94 reported sightings | 14.80% of all reports |
Late night | 00:00 - 03:59 | 63 reported sightings | 9.92% of all reports |
Afternoon | 12:00 - 15:59 | 48 reported sightings | 7.56% of all reports |
Morning | 08:00 - 11:59 | 46 reported sightings | 7.24% of all reports |
All California Cities with reported UFO sightings in 2020
These are running counts of how many UFO sighting reports were filed per city in California, in 2020
Other Years with Reported UFO Sightings in California
These are running counts of how many UFO sighting reports are filed per year in California.