I’ve been researching nationwide UFO statistics for about two months, and what I found to be frustrating are the lost cities of UFO reports.
Out of almost every state’s UFO sighting database, I have found that about one out of every 10 entries in the records leave the “city” field blank.
I have found that about 1 percent of UFO sighting reports have something other than a city annotation. These UFO reports might mention a specific interstate or state highway. Some of these road sightings even dutifully report mile markers, exits or crossroads. Amazingly enough, I can usually ascertain a good county or township location from this road information.
Then, on occasion, there are a few blessed people who report their sighting location with the latitude and longitude information from their car or phone’s GPS, and that nails the sighting location on the head.
I’ve even seen a few humble comments in the city field that simple said, “I don’t know.”
Probably the most troubling text remarks that I’ve seen are of the suspicious nature; remarks like “I’d rather not say” or “I’m too scared.”
An individual close to our statistical research asked if it’s really important to know the city. The answer is resounding yes! By knowing the city, mile-marker or lat-long of the UFO sighting, we can record a county location. County location helps us develop sighting patterns and potentially hypothesizes why a certain part of a state has more sightings than another.
So if you have the need to make a UFO report with NUFORC or MUFON, please log something of substance in the city location field.
The Lost Cities of UFO Reports
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Columnist Cheryl Costa discusses the lack of city information in UFO Reports.
