Last updated on June 1, 2024

North Dakota UFO Sightings in 2020

This page aggregates and analyzes all UFO sighting reports made in North Dakota during 2020.

How many North Dakota UFO sightings were there in 2020?

  • There were 25 officially reported UFO sightings in North Dakota in 2020.
  • In 2020, North Dakota ranked #49 on the list of states with the most UFO sightings for that year.
  • Adjusted for population size, North Dakota ranks #14 in the list of states with the most reported UFO sightings in 2020, with an average of 3.21 reports per 100,000 residents.

North Dakota Cities with the most UFO Sightings in 2020

Rank City Number of Reports
1 Valley City, ND 16 UFO Reports
2 Fargo, ND 2 UFO Reports
3 Arnegard, ND 1 UFO Reports
4 Stanley, ND 1 UFO Reports
5 Minot, ND 1 UFO Reports

North Dakota UFO Sightings Analysis

We analyzed all 25 UFO sighting reports in North Dakota from 2020 to identify possible patterns and gain insight into the phenomenon:

North Dakota UFO Sighting Reports in 2020

This is a sampling of 20 North Dakota 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).

Anamoose, ND

Full Report Text:

Large, spinning , colorful UFO. Starting at 6 pm we watched 5 of these donut like spinners above heads and smaller bright ones coming out of them then would fly in a line and vanish. At 11:15 pm I went back outside and there was one huge one even with the naked eye full of color, spinning these have been out here every night for the past month.

The ones from earlier that were emitted from the larger ones had moved across sky, stopped hovered together then a flash of red and white and took off.

12/07/20 11:23 PM

UFO Shape: disk

Lasted: 2 hours

Report

New Leipzig, ND

Full Report Text:

At least 61 UFOs in a straight line traveling West to East at 5:45 AM unforgettable !!! I had gotten in my hot tub around 5:45 AM and was watching the sky for satellites going over. I spotted one lone satellite going South to North , then I noticed two what looked like satellites going West to East. I thought this was unusual as I have never seen that happen before.

Then I noticed two more traveling in the same West to East line , both groups had the same spacing. As I watched they kept coming, equally spaced except for a few. Every so often there would be two side by side.

I watched for what I think was maybe 5 minutes and counted as at least 61 went by. Maybe more as I might have missed one or two. The most fantastic thing I have ever seen !!!!.

10/15/20 6:15 AM

UFO Shape: sphere

Lasted: 3-5 minutes

Report

Valley City, ND

Full Report Text:

Lake Ashtabula. High altitude (or low orbit) light moving at extreme speeds in a zig-zag pattern. Lake Ashtabula (10 miles N of Valley City, ND) I had been stargazing and watching a meteor shower with my girlfriend and my grandparents on this evening.

Around 11:30pm, everyone started heading into the cabin to go to bed but I decided to stay by the fire for awhile longer. As I was about to get up, I saw what at first looked like a satellite, however it moved at extreme speeds in a zig-zag pattern. It appeared to be at high altitude or low earth orbit.

People know me as a "space nerd" so when I saw this and told my girlfriend, she believed me when I said it was not a satellite or spacecraft. It may have been blinking but I cannot remember for sure. I am also an aircraft pilot, so I know it was not an aircraft.

08/11/20 11:45 PM

UFO Shape: light

Lasted: 30-45 seconds

Report

Valley City, ND

Full Report Text:

MADAR Node 93.

07/27/20 5:44 PM

UFO Shape:

Lasted:

Report

Valley City, ND

Full Report Text:

MADAR Node 93.

07/22/20 5:20 AM

UFO Shape:

Lasted:

Report

Valley City, ND

Full Report Text:

MADAR Node 93.

07/21/20 7:24 AM

UFO Shape:

Lasted:

Report

Devils Lake, ND

Full Report Text:

4 flashing lights organized in a rectangle followed distantly by a large helicopter 4 white pulsating lights followed distantly by a large slower moving helicopter. The lights stayed perfectly distanced from one another creating a rectangular shape. They blinked one at a time in what seemed to be an organized pattern from top left, top right, bottom right, bottom left, and repeated this as long as it could be seen.

I followed the lights and the helicopter but was unable to match speed. I noted that my car radio had a weird feedback at this time, and I was listening to a CD versus a radio station. Also, my headlights seems to flicker which is unusual.

I attempted to take a picture in my phone if this, but it was too dark and nothing shows on it.

07/15/20 11:30 PM

UFO Shape: formation

Lasted: 25 minutes

Report

Grand Forks, ND

Full Report Text:

Large rounded V shaped craft moved silently from South to North. A friend and myself were sitting on my deck watching for the meteor shower. While we watched, I saw a large V shaped object appear and start moving from S to N.

The corners were all rounded. It moved straight with the rounded point of the V in the front. It had no individual lights.

It was grey/metallic and seemed to either be reflecting the city lights or the entire craft was dimly glowing. It made no noise and moved slower than an aircraft. As it went over my house, I stood up so I could continue watching and at the same time my friend yelled “I saw that!” We tried to explain it away but could not.

The skies were crystal clear, there were no events happening with big lights or anything. We have an airbase nearby but it didn’t look like anything I’ve ever seen. It was a boomerang/rounded V shape.

No tail, nothing inside of the V. I would say at the very least as large as a 747, but was much lower in the sky than they fly. Very strange.

07/12/20 12:00 AM

UFO Shape: chevron

Lasted: 5-10 seconds

Report

Valley City, ND

Full Report Text:

Black triangular craft rising from ground with 3 lights that flashed just before the craft disappeared. While camping my friend and I took a walk in the woods. I stopped when I saw a black triangular craft slowly rising off of the ground about 100 yards away.

There were 3 lights that started to grow in intensity before the craft just vanished. My friend asked me if he was the only one who just saw what had happened and I said that I had seen it too.

06/14/20 3:00 AM

UFO Shape: triangle

Lasted: 7 seconds

Report

Fargo, ND

Full Report Text:

Bright Red light spotted over interstate. Early in the morning of June 1st, 2020 I was laying in bed when I looked out my window and through a break in the trees I saw a red light that one would see on top of a radio tower. It had to be over I-29 or even I-94, but it was up about the cruising altitude of a commercial jet that people would take to travel.

Anyway, I was laying there and I saw this beacon light almost, but knowing the area there's no tower that I can see from my bedroom window. It was a bright red light and it hovered in the sky for approximately 30 seconds and then gradually increased speed from a dead stop within one to two seconds, shooting off to the south west. I'd never seen anything like this in my life and it scared me.

06/01/20 12:30 AM

UFO Shape: light

Lasted: 30 seconds

Report

Arnegard, ND

Full Report Text:

15-20 white/pulsing/objects form/fly in triangle and disappear.Red/Blue explosions when chasing each other in sky at impossible speeds I had been working night shift all night and noticed what appeared to be a dying star or a meteor above a row of tanks to the north west. I decided to drive up the hill away from the flares on location to see it my eyes were playing tricks.

So I watched for a couple minutes and decided to go back. As I was getting back in my truck I looked up again and saw this object move from the left to the right. I thought maybe I could get a better look if I had the time to set up my telescope.

Then I seen it start flashing and start to get brighter At that moment I watched it fly from the Northwest to the southwest in a matter of seconds. Then it stopped and started circling around a few other stars. I wondered if it could have been space junk or a destroyed sattelite until the 2 "stars"t was circling started to move.

The 2 objects started chasing eachother moving down towards the horizon. Then as they moved around one another, they both made these strange je! rky movements and then all I could see was what looked like red electricity then a red and blue explosion that light the inside of the clouds up. After the explosion I seen one of the objects moving towards the horizon, then I notice vortex from where he was grom but it dissipated quickly.

Then I seen it changed shape or take shape since the I couldn't make out the initial shape of the object since it was moving too quickly, that's when I seen it turn black and shiny. As it hit the horizon it disappeared and reappeared a  short distance from where it was. It did this twice before I lost sight of it.

After that I was amazed but also shocked at what I seen. I decided to set up my telescope to see if what I seen was a sattelite flying over head or something falling from orbit. While I set up I looked towards the spot I seen the explosion.

seen another object fly to the north with the same speed and movements as the others. I watched it stop in the sky and stay still. Then 2 ! more joined it and another one fly below the others and stay s! till.

Th en after about 5 minutes they moved into a triangle like formation and pulse and shaking. As I watched another object maneuver around what appeared to be more stars make  another explosion followed by a bunch of little red dots and flashes, in a matter of a seconds it was done. Then one by one these objects flew into this triangle formation towards the top in the same spot as the others then speed up and disappear.

I watched close to 15-20 fly through and disappear while for a second every time they passed through it looked like a very small vortex form and disappear. I was awestruck and a little frightened. At the very end I seen the bright one that I had first seen, and it passed through and disaapeared as well.

Then I watch all 3 objects fly in that same pattern towards the east. As it was leaving it looked as of there was a faint line in between them. It looked like it tilted upwards, but it was hard to tell, then they disappeared.

I forgot to mention that all of these o! bjects had a white light that would change intensity; the one I seen turned black had a the shape of a Bell then as it turned black it looked like a dumbbell with a bottle cap on the top towards the middle. The rest were more saucer shaped but not as compressed. The bright one was harder to make out from it’s speed and the way it pulsed.

I've seen this same triangle formation years ago in Wing, ND.

05/11/20 1:30 AM

UFO Shape: changing

Lasted: 1 hour

Report

Minot, ND

Full Report Text:

Fleet of unknown fast moving bright objects Went out this morning to look for meteors and wait for the 4:12 am Passover of Starlink. From the south shot roughly a dozen fast moving objects. They were white and bright but moving too fast to make out anything other then an orb shape.

Lower then a satellite or plane. The 1st group had two. The 2nd following had 3.

The 3rd group was two. The 4th group had three and the final group appeared to have 4. They all were closely grouped back to back.

Moving far too fast to be birds. The final grouping evaporated in this air. I’ve been watching for meteors in the skies here for over 22 years.

These were not meteor as they were not high enough. They sped up, slowed down and sped back up before disappearing. I observed several satellites, 2 airplanes, two geese flying from north to south, a few atmospheric flashes that I presume were meteors and I counted 15 Starlinks before I stopped and went inside.

The other objects are a mystery to me.

04/22/20 3:20 AM

UFO Shape: formation

Lasted: 5 minutes

Report

Valley City, ND

Full Report Text:

MADAR Node 93.

03/15/20 4:25 AM

UFO Shape:

Lasted:

Report

Valley City, ND

Full Report Text:

MADAR Node 93.

03/08/20 6:31 PM

UFO Shape:

Lasted:

Report

Valley City, ND

Full Report Text:

MADAR Node 93.

03/08/20 4:47 AM

UFO Shape:

Lasted:

Report

Fargo, ND

Full Report Text:

Multiple lights flying across the night sky. My son & I were outside by my garage when I happen to look up and noticed a light that I thought was from a satellite traveling from the South West going to the North East. When I pointed it out to my son, he then said that there were a few more "lights" traveling along the same orbital path.

But as we watched the lights, we noticed that there were even more "lights flying across the sky. It took the "lights" about 12 seconds to fly across the sky from where they appeared to where they disappeared. In all we counted 27 "lights" traveling across the sky.

03/07/20 8:30 PM

UFO Shape: light

Lasted: 15 minutes

Report

Valley City, ND

Full Report Text:

MADAR Node 93.

03/07/20 5:38 AM

UFO Shape:

Lasted:

Report

Valley City, ND

Full Report Text:

MADAR Node 93.

03/01/20 5:47 AM

UFO Shape:

Lasted:

Report

Stanley, ND

Full Report Text:

Traveling west on hwy 2, deep red light hovering 500ft above a house, 3 miles east of stanley roughly half mile to south of hwy 2, observed for 15 min while driving down hwy. No blinking or flashing lights, solid deep red light.

02/24/20 1:00 AM

UFO Shape: unknown

Lasted: 15 minutes

Report

Valley City, ND

Full Report Text:

MADAR Node 93.

02/22/20 5:22 AM

UFO Shape:

Lasted:

Report

North Dakota 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 3 reported sightings 12.00% of all reports
Formation 2 reported sightings 8.00% of all reports
Triangle 1 reported sightings 4.00% of all reports
Changing 1 reported sightings 4.00% of all reports
Unknown 1 reported sightings 4.00% of all reports
Sphere 1 reported sightings 4.00% of all reports
Chevron 1 reported sightings 4.00% of all reports
Disk 1 reported sightings 4.00% of all reports

North Dakota 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
March 6 reported sightings 24.00% of all reports
July 5 reported sightings 20.00% of all reports
February 4 reported sightings 16.00% of all reports
January 3 reported sightings 12.00% of all reports
June 2 reported sightings 8.00% of all reports
December 1 reported sightings 4.00% of all reports
May 1 reported sightings 4.00% of all reports
April 1 reported sightings 4.00% of all reports
August 1 reported sightings 4.00% of all reports
October 1 reported sightings 4.00% of all reports

North Dakota 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
Sunday 6 reported sightings 24.00% of all reports
Monday 6 reported sightings 24.00% of all reports
Saturday 3 reported sightings 12.00% of all reports
Wednesday 3 reported sightings 12.00% of all reports
Tuesday 3 reported sightings 12.00% of all reports
Thursday 2 reported sightings 8.00% of all reports
Friday 2 reported sightings 8.00% of all reports

North Dakota 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
03/07/20 2 reported sightings 8.00% of all reports
03/08/20 2 reported sightings 8.00% of all reports
12/07/20 1 reported sightings 4.00% of all reports
02/24/20 1 reported sightings 4.00% of all reports
08/11/20 1 reported sightings 4.00% of all reports

North Dakota 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
Early morning 04:00 - 07:59 12 reported sightings 48.00% of all reports
Late night 00:00 - 03:59 6 reported sightings 24.00% of all reports
Night 20:00 - 23:59 4 reported sightings 16.00% of all reports
Evening 16:00 - 19:59 2 reported sightings 8.00% of all reports
Afternoon 12:00 - 15:59 1 reported sightings 4.00% of all reports

All North Dakota Cities with reported UFO sightings in 2020

These are running counts of how many UFO sighting reports were filed per city in North Dakota, in 2020

City Number of Reports View Reports
Valley City 16 UFO Reports Valley City UFO Sightings in 2020
Fargo 2 UFO Reports Fargo UFO Sightings in 2020
Arnegard 1 UFO Reports Arnegard UFO Sightings in 2020
Stanley 1 UFO Reports Stanley UFO Sightings in 2020
Minot 1 UFO Reports Minot UFO Sightings in 2020
New Leipzig 1 UFO Reports New Leipzig UFO Sightings in 2020
Grand Forks 1 UFO Reports Grand Forks UFO Sightings in 2020
Anamoose 1 UFO Reports Anamoose UFO Sightings in 2020
Devils Lake 1 UFO Reports Devils Lake UFO Sightings in 2020

Other Years with Reported UFO Sightings in North Dakota

These are running counts of how many UFO sighting reports are filed per year in North Dakota.

Year Number of Reports View Reports
2023 6 UFO Reports North Dakota UFO Sightings in 2023
2022 3 UFO Reports North Dakota UFO Sightings in 2022
2021 9 UFO Reports North Dakota UFO Sightings in 2021
2020 25 UFO Reports North Dakota UFO Sightings in 2020
2019 18 UFO Reports North Dakota UFO Sightings in 2019
2018 8 UFO Reports North Dakota UFO Sightings in 2018
2017 9 UFO Reports North Dakota UFO Sightings in 2017
2016 12 UFO Reports North Dakota UFO Sightings in 2016
2015 11 UFO Reports North Dakota UFO Sightings in 2015
2014 11 UFO Reports North Dakota UFO Sightings in 2014
2013 7 UFO Reports North Dakota UFO Sightings in 2013
2012 12 UFO Reports North Dakota UFO Sightings in 2012
2011 12 UFO Reports North Dakota UFO Sightings in 2011
2010 5 UFO Reports North Dakota UFO Sightings in 2010
2009 9 UFO Reports North Dakota UFO Sightings in 2009
2008 10 UFO Reports North Dakota UFO Sightings in 2008
2007 6 UFO Reports North Dakota UFO Sightings in 2007
2006 7 UFO Reports North Dakota UFO Sightings in 2006
2005 4 UFO Reports North Dakota UFO Sightings in 2005
2004 9 UFO Reports North Dakota UFO Sightings in 2004
2003 9 UFO Reports North Dakota UFO Sightings in 2003
2002 4 UFO Reports North Dakota UFO Sightings in 2002
2001 6 UFO Reports North Dakota UFO Sightings in 2001
2000 5 UFO Reports North Dakota UFO Sightings in 2000
1999 6 UFO Reports North Dakota UFO Sightings in 1999
1998 4 UFO Reports North Dakota UFO Sightings in 1998
1997 2 UFO Reports North Dakota UFO Sightings in 1997
1996 7 UFO Reports North Dakota UFO Sightings in 1996
1995 8 UFO Reports North Dakota UFO Sightings in 1995
1991 1 UFO Reports North Dakota UFO Sightings in 1991
1990 3 UFO Reports North Dakota UFO Sightings in 1990
1983 2 UFO Reports North Dakota UFO Sightings in 1983
1982 1 UFO Reports North Dakota UFO Sightings in 1982
1979 1 UFO Reports North Dakota UFO Sightings in 1979
1978 3 UFO Reports North Dakota UFO Sightings in 1978
1977 2 UFO Reports North Dakota UFO Sightings in 1977
1976 2 UFO Reports North Dakota UFO Sightings in 1976
1975 1 UFO Reports North Dakota UFO Sightings in 1975
1974 1 UFO Reports North Dakota UFO Sightings in 1974
1970 1 UFO Reports North Dakota UFO Sightings in 1970