There’s no denying it, 2013 has been a “hot year” for UFO sightings. Globally, the number of sightings is up 22 percent. Before 2012, worldwide sightings averaged about 4,500 a year. Last year’s sightings tallied nearly 8,000. At the end of August, planetary sightings have totaled 4,181 this year.
New York is maintaining its average of about 3.5 percent of the world’s UFO sightings. UFO reports for the Empire State in August topped 42, out of 153 this year.
Let’s review some upstate reports for August:
- 2 Aug.: A Liverpool resident sighted a glowing sphere about 5 degrees above the western horizon, a little after sunset. A family member was called and observed the same object, which did not move across the sky westward like a star.
- 3 Aug.: About sunset, a man in Voorheesville sighted a bright glowing orange ball coming towards his house. He beckoned to his wife and son to join him outside. The three watched in astonishment as the object flew silently over ahead, moving eastward.
- 6 Aug.: Late at night, a young man in Utica observed a very bright multicolored object, just above the horizon. He called to two friends to witness this phenomenon. He reports that the object was diving and swooping at tremendous speed, changing colors as it did.
- 10 Aug.: In Alden, a man out walking his dog noticed moving toward him a bright pulsing red light in the southwest sky. The object silently flew directly overhead. What astounded the man was within a few minutes three more of these bright red objects flew overhead moving in the same direction.
- 10 Aug: In Ithaca, some folks out watching the Perseid meteor shower observed six to eight lights in the shape of a boomerang. The object with the lights blocked out the stars as it silently passed overhead at great speed, moving east to west.
- 12 Aug.: In Utica, at about 2:15 a.m., three workers went outside on a break. One of them noticed a reddish object with light blue lights rotating around it. They state that the object flew toward them, going in a circle around their position, then returned to its original position in the sky. Two more of these objects appeared and silently did similar maneuvers.
- 17 Aug.: A Syracuse resident observed a stationary object composed of a bright red and yellow cluster of blinking lights near Schiller Park. The reported object just hovered for about five minutes, then “… it winked out.”
- 20 Aug.: Near Binghamton, a hilltop resident reported seeing a bright white orb coming from the north and moving silently. It turned, stopped, hovered for a few seconds then took off eastward at great speed.
- 23 Aug: In Penn Yan, near dusk, a grandfather and teenage grandchild observed a glowing triangular object with seven lights around the triangle. The teenager was reported to be greatly upset by the sighting.
- 24 Aug.: In Elmira, about 8 p.m., a resident sighted two large bright reddish-orange spheres moving rapidly and silently in the western sky before they disappeared.
- 24 Aug.: In Bemus Point, on the shores of Chautauqua Lake, at about 8:30 p.m. a group of vacationers witnessed a large circular object that seemed to be rotating and changing color from white to red. The object is reported to have hovered for nearly an hour before slowly and silently moving out of sight. 24 Aug.: In Guilderland, an anonymous witness reports that at about 9:15 p.m., sighting two spherical, bright reddish-orange objects in the lower eastern sky. The first object came to a stop, waiting until the second object joined it. Then the two spheres began rising together very quickly and disappeared.
- 29 Aug.: In Auburn, a resident reported two formations of 10 semi-round UFOs heading south over Auburn at about 10:30 p.m. They were amber, silent and moving at great speed. A few minutes later, an even larger formation of 20 more of these objects passed over in the same approximate direction and speed as the first formation.
If you have a New York UFO sighting story to tell, I’d love to hear about it. All respondents’ names will be kept confidential. Email me at [email protected]