Source: Patch.com

Nobody can say 2020 has been a normal year: The coronavirus pandemic, cancelation of many college and professional sports, social justice protests and an active Atlantic hurricane season, just to name a few things. While UFO Awareness Day was observed July 2, every day seems to bring reports of strange celestial sightings.

Witness accounts from Florida indicate there’s plenty to see in the heavens, even though the state ranks in the bottom five for sightings.

The National UFO Reporting Center has hundreds of reports of unidentified flying objects, piquing the curiosity of folks fascinated by the possibility that we’re not alone here on Earth and aliens from another galaxy are circling the planet in strange-looking spacecraft.

So far, 5,585 UFO reports have been filed by Floridians, according to the National UFO Reporting Center.

Some of the more interesting ones include:

Crestview: A resident reported that after watching fireworks they noticed two flickering fiery globes moving in an unusual pattern just over the local airport.

“My wife thought they were firework burnoff pieces until 4 more appeared and we realized they had other lights, and were all the same shape. They were moving about the speed of a helicopter, and their light was bright enough to cast a glow. I would guess they would have been 4 times the size of a large truck. They appeared to become translucent before becoming completely invisible. Right after they disappeared, a sharp noise made both of us duck. The noise pierced our ears about 3 or 4 more times. The sound was almost painful.”

Gainesville: On June 29 an observe spotted what looked like a shooting star. “Coming downward until it turned to a teardrop with a fire tail. Then it stopped and started to pulsate a very bright light. After it dropped for a second it then hovered. After 10 to 15 pulsates it disappeared.”

Weeki Wachee: On June 13 a resident looking out a bedroom window saw saucers in the sky. “They were bright and one of them was purple.They lasted about 45 minutes in the sky. I was looking North from my window.”

You can read more UFO sightings from Florida on the National UFO Reporting Center site.

The notion of intergalactic travel got a boost when information emerged from the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, a shadowy $22 million Defense Department program that began in 2007 to investigate unidentified aerial phenomena. The multi-year program was shut down in 2012, but the Pentagon released UFO videos earlier this year.

The Pentagon acknowledged the secret program to investigate UFO sightings in 2017, the same year as retired naval Cmdr. David Fravor dramatically recalled a confounding encounter with a UFO when he was conducting a training mission off the coast of California in 2004.

The wingless oblong craft about 40 feet long was flying erratically through his airspace at incredible speed, maneuvering in a way that defies accepted principles of aerodynamics. Fravor didn’t know what to make of it but said it was not like anything he had ever seen in nearly 20 years of flying.

He described the UFO as other-worldly.

“I can tell you, I think it was not from this world,” Fravor told ABC News. “I’m not crazy, haven’t been drinking. It was — after 18 years of flying, I’ve seen pretty much about everything that I can see in that realm, and this was nothing close.”

Not all accounts are that dramatic, but there are more than a few head-scratchers among the witness accounts.

Your chances of seeing a UFO are better in some places than others. According to the ranking of states by SatelliteInternet.com, those with the most sightings are:

1. Idaho
2. Montana
3. New Hampshire
4. Maine
5. New Mexico

The states with the fewest sightings are:

1. Texas
2. Louisiana
3. New York
4. Maryland
5. Illinois

Source: Patch.com