The MUFON logo (credit: MUFON)As we reported last week, there was a spike in the number of reported UFO sightings this summer. That information was presented in an article written by Benjamin Radford of LiveScience.com that appeared on the CBS News website on September 19. Clifford Clift, the international director of the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON), is quoted in the article as stating, “When you average 500 a month [nationwide] and go to 1,013 in one month, that’s an interesting spike in sighting reports.” Clift National UFO Reporting Center logo (credit: NUFORC.org)postulates, “It’s likely that the media and [alien-themed] movies that are coming out, like ‘Apollo 18’ and ‘Paul,’ are piquing people’s interest in UFOs.”
There are several small groups that take UFO sighting reports from the public, but the National UFO Reporting Center and MUFON are the two main United States organizations that do this. MUFON is a much larger organization that investigates UFO sighting reports, and tracking data is something the organization does well. The National UFO Reporting Center, operated by Peter Davenport, is specifically a hotline for reporting UFO sightings.
LiveScience published an infographic today on their website showing the top ten states for UFO sightings. The National UFO Reporting Center’s data was used to create the infographic, and the data represents sightings from 1994-2011.
Jason McClellan is a UFO journalist and the producer/co-host of the web series Spacing Out! He is also the web content manager and staff writer for OpenMinds.tv, and a co-organizer and technical producer of the International UFO Congress. As a founding member of Open Minds, Jason served as a writer and editor for the now defunct Open Minds magazine. He has appeared on Syfy, NatGeo, and, most recently, he co-starred on H2's Hangar 1: The UFO Files. ------ Follow Jason on Twitter @acecentric and subscribe to Jason's updates on Facebook.
