Table of Contents
Virginia UFO Sightings Analysis
We analyzed all 2,694 UFO sighting reports in Virginia to identify possible patterns and gain insight into the phenomenon:
- The most commonly reported UFO shape or appearance is "light" (504 reports, 18.71% of total).
- July is the month with the most reported UFO sightings (265 reports, 9.84% of total).
- Saturday is the weekday with the most reported UFO sightings (474 reports, 17.59% of total).
- 09/24/22 is the single date with the most UFO sightings reported (7 reports, 0.26% of total).
- 2013 is the year with the most UFO sightings reported (205 reports, 7.61% of total).
- Sightings occur more often during the night, between the hours of 20:00 - 23:59 (1,221 reports, 45.32% of total).
20 Most Recent UFO Sightings in Virginia
These Virginia 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:
Silver Cylinder moving slowing in the sky. There I was looking up out of my sunroof waiting to go into the gym, just like every other day. Out of nowhere there was this cylinder object moving slowly through the sky.
At first I thought drown but no, we live in a no fly zone area due to the military jets that are constantly flying. This was no plane. It had no light like one.
The sun itself reflected off it. I have the video. iPhone 15 pro max.
Full Report Text:
Six or seven lights on sky. Seemed quite close. Six or seven lights in sky, seemed way to close to be satellites.
No sound. Lights were big and box or square in shape, slowly rotating from right to left, while they all in unison moved from right to left in the sky. This happened for what felt like seconds, and then the lights slowly dimmed and vanished in seconds as well.
After the lights had cut off, it seemed like you could see a massive craft, that was maybe like a thick 3d pancake, but only for a brief moment. I've looked at several starlink videos and pictures, none of them looked like what we saw.
Full Report Text:
5-8 orb-shaped lights, in a perfectly straight row heading SE then suddenly disappearing. After picking up my friend at the Richmond Airport at 9:06pm, we drove south on airport drive. As we went up the Airport Dr.
bridge, passing the San-j building on our right, my friend pointed out the passenger side window (west) at lights in the sky among the airplanes passing by. There were no clouds whatsoever and we could clearly see planes, the moon, and constellations, but this UFO stood out. I slowed the car down to avoid swerving while leaning to look out the passenger window and saw the object(s) clearly.
It had 5-8 clear, bright orbs, seemingly attached to something keeping them in a perfect line. The orbs were distinct, clearly not reflections. They seemed lower than the airplanes around them and brighter, and moved southeast towards/above us.
My friend put down her bag to grab her phone and was able to snap one, blurry picture before the objects completely disappeared. The whole event was maybe three seconds before the object(s) seemingly vanished. We immediately scanned the sky for any signs but found none.
We u-turned and circled back around the area but could find nothing. We checked Starlink and Blue Origin and there were no listed satellite releases or launches of any kind at our time and location. (Moon visible as reference in picture).
Full Report Text:
Black square was hovering, and then it disappeared and reappeared again.
Full Report Text:
The videos are from 2 different people at 2 different locations miles apart in Suffolk, Virginia.
Full Report Text:
Standing to the west of this object it hung in the sky and looked like a very large star. It made erratic sharp movements My wife and I observed for over 90 minutes what first looked like a plane or a large star that pulsated different colors like green, blue, red, and white. Once we watched for a while we realized it was not a satellite as it was not moving in a typical orbital pattern.
it was not an airplane as it was not moving in one direction. It hung in the air high in the sky, it looked like a very large star. It would randomly make fast movements down and back up, too quick to be a conventional aircraft.
The movements were erratic and quick. It would grow in size over minutes and then grow smaller as if it was moving closer and then further away slowly over the 90 minutes. The sharp darting movements and its brilliant brightness confirmed to me it was not an airplane or helicopter, could not have been a satellite, and was too large and bright and consistent and high to be a drone.
I am 36 years old, former police officer, and established member of the community. I have never seen anything that could be construed to be a UFO until last night when my wife and I watched this insane display.
Full Report Text:
Large, steadily moving light over Falls Church, VA toward DC. At 7:25pm, approximately when it was over DC, released a spray of liquid. One large bright light in the lead, two dimmer close behind.
Spray appeared to come from large bright light.
Full Report Text:
Two objects seen from ground flying against wind today. Around 1230 in the afternoon, I witnessed two low flying objects (going east). They were white and shiny, again low and flying aginst the wind which was 340 11to20G I think.
They went passed houses in a neighborhood and I lost sight, I do understand planes and airline craft enter approaches from there, but I dont think it was that.
Full Report Text:
Bright white oval object vanished when I looked away for one second. I was driving from Dulles to Maryland. Given the proximity to the airport I saw what I first thought could be a plane.
But the color was such a bright white that it was weird to a plane to look that bright in the sky. I tried to make out the shape but it looked too oval to be a plane. The proportion was also off.
It looked too large for it to be a plane at that distance. I was squinting trying to make out the shape, but since I was driving, I quickly shifted my eyes back to road before continuing my observation. When I looked back up after one second at most, it was completely gone.
I don’t know how long it was there before I caught sight of it, but my experience was only five seconds or so.
Full Report Text:
Large triangular craft with red corner lights My wife and I were walking down Main St in Reedville, VA when I noticed three solid red lights forming a triangle in the sky to the east of us. It was past sundown and the moon had not come out yet so the sky was very dark. When I focused in on it I could see that the area between the 3 red lights was darker than the rest of the sky, indicating that they were on the three corners of one object.
My wife noticed the same. It was moving northward and as it moved it seemed to rotate on its axis parallel to the ground. The three lights started as a perfect triangle then moved into a straighter line and as they did the darker area between them continued to fill only the area they created.
I cannot say how far away or how big it was, but it appeared it was massive. It covered an area larger than a really full moon would in the sky. We did not hear any noise associated with it.
It was moving quickly at first but slowed down to almost a stop at one point then sped back up. After around a minute of following it with my eyes two jets came towards it at a high rate of speed. I knew they were jets because I could hear them very clearly and we get a lot of A-10 jets flying overhead here.
Based on how loud they were I would say they were pretty low. Maybe 1000-2000 feet. As they approached the triangle continued to move and was obscured by some really tall pines so I ran further down the street past the trees, but when I got to the other side of the trees the triangle was no where to be seen, but the jets continued on their respective paths.
That’s all.
Full Report Text:
Driving on the way to work when I saw this. I pulled over and tried to get pics with my Samsung Galaxy phone. These are screenshots.
There were also helicopters around but I can't be sure that it was related. At one point the light split into 4 which I actually did get a pic of.
Full Report Text:
Pyramid shape with lights on one side Very low, slow (almost stationery) craft with one pulsating white light at the tip of one point and several smaller steady white lights on one side/face of a slightly elongated pyramid shaped object. Lights on the face were not arranged in a linear fashion, but were erratically placed. There were probably 20-25 of these smaller lights.
There was one craft and it was dark grey in color, no visible lights from any other face as I passed underneath it. As I approached (in my car) it appeared to slowly rotate on an axis, almost as if it was very slowly tumbling or rolling on an axis that passed through the apex/nose of the craft. After passing under/to the right of it, it was not visible in any of my mirrors and there were no lights but I could see another grey face of a slightly elongated pyramid and could see it was dark grey.
It was dusk/twilight and I had a hard time making out the edges, but it was clear there was an angular flat face to the craft. The craft did not look like any I am familiar with from the surrounding military bases or airports. I described it to my mom as, “larger than a pickup truck but smaller than a house.
” It was dusk but I was still able to see the outline of the craft. The craft was observed in the air between two sets of high-voltage power lines (so just at a height above those) and near the nuclear power plant. I usually lose cell service in the area under the power lines while driving and lost cell service this time as well for a brief moment.
Full Report Text:
Observed something strange while on back deck. Observed many crafts flashing many different colors flying around in the night sky while sitting on my back deck. Crafts would sit still in one spot then flying off many different directions and stopping instantly.
They would Chase one another like they were playing.
Full Report Text:
Saw a dark v shape object w white lights glide over my home then three seconds later a drone shaped small object Was out on patio at 11:10pm on phone with my father. Police helicopter circling my neighborhood and areas around it. As I’m seeing that I see a dark outline of a v shaped object with 3-5 bright white lights on the tips of the wings.
I’d estimate about 20-30 feet wide and maybe 750-1000 feet in the air. It seemed to be gliding and it curved left over my house and out of my view. Helicopter continues to circle.
I walked to the edge of my patio and looked across the street up in the air to co tongue watching it when out if the blue I saw what appeared to be a 5-6 foot drone like object hovering no more then 30 ft in the air and about 30 feet away or so from me. It looked like a drone with bright small white lights at the end of each wing - maybe like five wings if you’d call them that. The lights were moving around as If it were hovering and came a bit towards me.
Then two of the lights appeared to drop down almost and connect to two other lights on the bottom. It then slowly hovered away up and away from me then out of my vantage point but I don’t remember it leaving exactly but it was just gone. I was describing the whole thing in real time to my father on the phone.
Police helicopters circled for about an hour in areas around my area. I’m confused at what I just saw. The compass direction I list will be regarding the small drone like object at the end, not the v shaped object.
Full Report Text:
Cluster of about 8 red lights in the Northwest sky over Chesapeake Bay Saw a cluster of about 8 red lights in the sky Northwest over the Chesapeake Bay. By the time l started filming, they formed a straight line and went behind the trees. At that point, the lights were blinking.
Still red, but there were a few “white orbs” seen around them as well and if you pause the video, theres some that quickly come in and out of the frames.
Full Report Text:
I don’t remember everything but I still see something strange every so often. I don’t know what it was, only it was my best guess of something I saw first above the trees that was too high to be headlights. Then it shot off then when I looked to my right it was there above the top of my apartment building approximately 40 feet then as I watched it I can’t remember walking in my apartment.
I was sitting in my apartment and thought I was outside only for about 15 to 20 minutes but after rewinding the show I started I realized I missed 3 episodes that run about 45 minutes to 1 hour. The strangest part is my shirt was on backwards. I remember taking a pictures but two are missing from my phone.
Full Report Text:
Two lights slowly and smoothly going across the sky. They stayed the same distance apart and the same speed. I went outside to grab some thing from my car while talking to my mother on the phone.
It was a clear night, and there had been a meteor shower a couple night before so I wanted to see if I catch any stragglers. I looked up and saw 2 dots coming over the ridge. Parallel to me flying across the horizon.
They stayed the same speed and they stayed the same distance apart the light or reflection on the back object was brighter than the object in the front. They slowly made their way across the ridge, and I could see them as they glided behind the trees. There was no sound coming from them.
I could see them above my neighbor's houses and they slowly disappeared behind the mountains. It seemed like they were following the mountain ridge. I Was able to get a video of them about halfway through the sighting.
After they were gone I noticed 6 different, what look like commercial, aircraft following in their direction, they were spaced apart and they had flashing lights and I could hear the sound, so I knew they were regular airplanes. I did not get them on video. I thought that was strange because I've never seen that many commercial flights flying in the same direction altogether and the same speed.
It seemed to me that they were following the 2 objects.
Full Report Text:
Ball of bright light no noise softball flew over house. It had a tail. Too low to be comet it was 25ft above the ground I saw one fast light fly over my house a half an hour later got video of a light in my woods scanning the forest.
Full Report Text:
I saw an object move very strangely and I did not notice lights on it and it stopped and then moved, several times. I went outside to smoke after dinner at my girlfriend’s house, I lit my cigarette then looked up to the sky NW area and noticed an object sliding across the sky, stopping then going again several times. It was white and grey with the naked eye, I was able to get video of it and pictures from the video.
I just reported one I seen on the 7th but this one was completely different than that one.
Full Report Text:
I viewed the anomaly for about 30 minutes after work and it wasn’t there tonight I got off work at 9:45 and was walking to my vehicle when I noticed a light, then I noticed it was changing color and moving, so I took several videos so I could look at them later and try to debunk myself but I couldn’t. I legitimately think it was something unexplainable and was transfixed on the object to where I stood in the cold for half an hour watching it even though I was freezing cold and tired I couldn’t look away at one point.
Virginia 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 | 504 reported sightings | 18.71% of all reports |
Circle | 300 reported sightings | 11.14% of all reports |
Triangle | 243 reported sightings | 9.02% of all reports |
Unknown | 195 reported sightings | 7.24% of all reports |
Fireball | 177 reported sightings | 6.57% of all reports |
Sphere | 176 reported sightings | 6.53% of all reports |
Other | 170 reported sightings | 6.31% of all reports |
Disk | 164 reported sightings | 6.09% of all reports |
Oval | 114 reported sightings | 4.23% of all reports |
Formation | 81 reported sightings | 3.01% of all reports |
Cigar | 74 reported sightings | 2.75% of all reports |
Changing | 71 reported sightings | 2.64% of all reports |
Flash | 51 reported sightings | 1.89% of all reports |
Rectangle | 49 reported sightings | 1.82% of all reports |
Cylinder | 47 reported sightings | 1.74% of all reports |
Diamond | 37 reported sightings | 1.37% of all reports |
Chevron | 35 reported sightings | 1.30% of all reports |
Egg | 27 reported sightings | 1.00% of all reports |
Teardrop | 18 reported sightings | 0.67% of all reports |
Orb | 17 reported sightings | 0.63% of all reports |
Cone | 9 reported sightings | 0.33% of all reports |
Cross | 6 reported sightings | 0.22% of all reports |
Delta | 3 reported sightings | 0.11% of all reports |
Star | 3 reported sightings | 0.11% of all reports |
Virginia 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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July | 265 reported sightings | 9.84% of all reports |
October | 259 reported sightings | 9.61% of all reports |
June | 258 reported sightings | 9.58% of all reports |
November | 255 reported sightings | 9.47% of all reports |
December | 246 reported sightings | 9.13% of all reports |
September | 239 reported sightings | 8.87% of all reports |
August | 216 reported sightings | 8.02% of all reports |
March | 205 reported sightings | 7.61% of all reports |
January | 200 reported sightings | 7.42% of all reports |
May | 185 reported sightings | 6.87% of all reports |
February | 179 reported sightings | 6.64% of all reports |
April | 152 reported sightings | 5.64% of all reports |
Virginia 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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Saturday | 474 reported sightings | 17.59% of all reports |
Friday | 397 reported sightings | 14.74% of all reports |
Sunday | 390 reported sightings | 14.48% of all reports |
Wednesday | 375 reported sightings | 13.92% of all reports |
Monday | 353 reported sightings | 13.10% of all reports |
Thursday | 346 reported sightings | 12.84% of all reports |
Tuesday | 324 reported sightings | 12.03% of all reports |
Virginia 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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09/24/22 | 7 reported sightings | 0.26% of all reports |
07/04/14 | 6 reported sightings | 0.22% of all reports |
06/29/17 | 6 reported sightings | 0.22% of all reports |
11/17/12 | 5 reported sightings | 0.19% of all reports |
01/07/02 | 5 reported sightings | 0.19% of all reports |
Virginia 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 | 1,221 reported sightings | 45.32% of all reports |
Evening | 16:00 - 19:59 | 518 reported sightings | 19.23% of all reports |
Late night | 00:00 - 03:59 | 356 reported sightings | 13.21% of all reports |
Afternoon | 12:00 - 15:59 | 212 reported sightings | 7.87% of all reports |
Early morning | 04:00 - 07:59 | 204 reported sightings | 7.57% of all reports |
Morning | 08:00 - 11:59 | 148 reported sightings | 5.49% of all reports |
Years with Reported UFO Sightings in Virginia
These are running counts of how many UFO sighting reports are filed per year in Virginia.
Cities with Reported UFO Sightings in Virginia
These are running counts of how many UFO sighting reports are filed per city in Virginia