A California witness at Santa Barbara reported watching an orange glow that lit up the sky followed by a bright, orange-colored object rising upwards at 3:47 a.m. on December 16, 2022, according to testimony from the National UFO Reporting Center (NUFORC).
The witness was riding in a Lyft from Agoura Hills up to the Santa Barbara Airport. It was the middle of the night and very dark. The witness and driver were having a good conversation when the driver suddenly pointed to the sky and they both went silent.
“We couldn’t make sense of what we were seeing,” the reporting witness stated. “The sky was filled with a horizontal, orange glow. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, a very, very brightly-lighted object appeared and rose into the sky, disappearing into the night.”
The witness said that the object almost looked as though it had fire trailing after it, but not a long trail.
“It all happened very fast as it seemed to disappear into the dark clouds. After that, both the driver and I kept searching the sky, wondering if we would see it again.”
After the first sighting, they did see it again about two minutes later but did not see an object.
“We only saw that same orange hue in the sky. A horizontal glow. The Lyft driver thought she saw it a third time a few minutes later, just for a second, but I didn’t see that one.”
The report contained no images, filed on December 16, 2022, and released for public viewing on December 22, 2022. Santa Barbara is a coastal community in Santa Barbara County, CA, population 88,665. Witness quotes were edited for clarity. Please report UFO activity to NUFORC or to the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON).
California Rating
California was rated number one in U.S. UFO sightings for December 2022 with 51 cases filed, according to the MUFON January newsletter.
There were 80 sphere cases reported nationally in December 2022.
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Historic California
A California witness at Burney recalled an encounter with three, disc-shaped objects at 7:30 p.m. on February 15, 1954, according to testimony from the National UFO Reporting Center (NUFORC).
The witness and a girlfriend were parked at a lakefront that night when the first object was seen. The incident date is approximate.
“I saw the UFO high above on the far side of the lake,” the reporting witness stated.
At first, the witness asked the young lady not to describe what she was seeing so that their descriptions would not influence each other.
The two observed one large, disc-shaped object, and soon two more small objects would follow.
“The smaller UFOs were maneuvering in and out toward the big UFO as if they were in a refueling process.”
Soon one of the small objects went over the horizon and the other went straight up and disappeared.
“The large UFO then went through a series of amazing maneuvers from hovering to amazing speeds back and forth and up and down. Then the UFO started appearing larger and larger until it was about the size of a football field and directly over my car.”
The witness did not indicate in the report how the large object moved away. No images were included in the report, filed on April 15, 2014.
Witness quotes were edited for clarity. Burney is an unincorporated town in Shasta County, CA, population 3,000.
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