Look, up in the sky! It’s World UFO Day, a day set up the raise awareness of unidentified flying objects and the possibility that we aren’t alone in the universe.
The obscure holiday has been celebrated each year since 2001, according to its website. The organizers set up the July 2 holiday to encourage governments to declassify their knowledge about sightings throughout the history.
At lehighvalleylive.com headquarters, we decided to observe the holiday by taking a look at all of the reported sightings of unidentified flying objects collected by the National UFO Reporting Center in the state since the beginning of 2020.
In the two years since, there’s been plenty of reported activity in the sky and sightings of objects that could be a weather balloon, a redeye airline flight or extraterrestrials on a mission from their home planet. They’ve been spotted everywhere from East Stroudsburg to Emmaus and called in at all hours of the night, prompting dozens of questions about what aliens may want with us here in the Lehigh Valley.
That begs the question — if a UFO were to land in the Lehigh Valley, what’s the ideal spot? Would they go to the Bethlehem Steel plant, a can’t-miss landmark a la Devil’s Tower in “Close Encounters of the Third Kind?” Or is it more likely they’ll be found somewhere in the wilderness of, say, Trexler Nature Preserve, like in “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial?”
My money’s on the steel stacks, but until that happens the only proof we have is the reported sightings.
There have been over 20 sightings in the area over the last two years. Some of the reports come with plenty of detail, some with barely a description. To celebrate World UFO Day, we dug into the reports to round up some of the best and, dare I say, most believable reported sightings across the Lehigh Valley since the summer of 2020.
July 4, 2020
Emmaus
Description: “I noticed a single red circle going at a medium-slow rate from the south to the north. Then noticed three other crafts, much smaller than the first object, moving the same motion and direction. The first craft just faded away as the other three were in pursuit of the single craft. You could see all three red balls streak off into a cloud, and then only two came out into the clear sky as one of the three disappeared. I watched for the third one to come out of the cloud, but never came into sight. These things didn’t make any sound.”
July 8, 2020
Allentown
Description: “Round very bright orange object traveling west to east, turned south, ascended quickly, getting smaller then disappeared into blackness.”
July 15, 2020
Emmaus
Description: “What appeared to be a white star circling a red circle. Object was not sporadic in movement.”
Hellertown
Description: “I was walking my dog behind my townhouse when I noticed a red ‘fireball’ moving toward me in the sky. It reminded me of the embers that rise from a bonfire or the light ball that represents a fairy in movies. It moved very fast and then seemed to hover for a few moments before veering off to my left in the direction of Allentown and then just disappeared. I stood there for a few moments thinking WTF did I just see then continued to allow my dog to sniff around but stayed pretty much in the same spot. I looked up again a few minutes later and saw the exact same thing, coming from the same direction and behaving in exactly the same way. I heard my neighbor come out of their place and i called him over. He watched the second one with me. It did the exact same peel off toward Allentown and then after a distance just disappeared. My dog did not respond to either sighting. We saw planes on their normal flight path from ABE airport in Allentown but they all looked normal and did not appear to be anywhere near whatever it was we saw.”
July 17, 2020
Nazareth
Description: “On July 17, 2020 In Nazareth PA I went out to see if I was able to see the comet even though I was almost midnight. Right away I saw 4 shooting stars so I got a chair and sat down.
I noticed a very brite (sic) star. The light coming off of it with the stars around made it so I could see all around it. I could see a shape like the edge of a disc or cigar with the light in the middle. I could also see it was gray. I focused on it trying to figure out what it was when I realized it was moving.
It was moving slow in a jerking motion, then it went fast and stopped. I questioned myself if I was seeing it move when it turned around to come back. It made like a square U to come back. It was over me again. It started to do the slow jerking motion going a few feet to the left then went in reverse to where it started. It did the same to the right.
After it went slow in a circle and back and forth it stood still. I tried to get pics and video but I only had my cell phone. After 5 minutes it went slow in a line then picked up speed and went over the mountain behind me. I drove to go around the mountain but never saw it again.”
July 21, 2020
Whitehall
Description: “5 or 6 orange balls/orbs forming an arrowhead.
I was watching the stars with some friends over a campfire, the sun was going down but it was not too dark yet. Clear skies.
What seemed like out of nowhere in the middle of the sky I seen 5 to 6 orange-ish balls/orbs that formed an arrowhead, flying right to left in the sky. The colors of the balls reminded me of the sky when the sun is setting, the orange/pink/red hues. They were below cloud level, and faster than a plane but made no noise. The balls kind of bounced and bobbed but stayed in formation. There was absolutely no light to them, and were not bright. They almost looked see-through.
I watched for a few seconds before I told anyone trying to figure out what it was, then when I realized what was happening I quickly told my friends to look but the orbs were already dissipating. No one else was able to see them.”
Aug. 1, 2020
Lehighton
Description: “This is the 3rd experience I’ve had in a 4-5 week span. Each experience has one common denominator a circle of brilliant white light that slowly and seemingly deliberately moves to the left then up to the right then down. It’s not in the same order every time and at points it seems to move forward as in towards me and then in the same way move backwards from me very quickly. This morning I observed it in the eastern sky for an hour. My first experience, a few weeks ago frightened me bc of how close it was. I thought that there were 2 but I can’t be sure. The light appeared in the southern sky and I observed this about 45 minutes and convinced myself that it was some new kind of drone. I went to bed but woke up 2 hrs later and there it was even closer but in the same south quadrant moving slightly west. I felt like it had an awareness of me observing it.
This feeling overwhelmed me mentally when it went dark then bright like it turned itself off and on. Tonight it did not turn off and on but I felt as if it knew I was studying it. Then in the far far distance I began noticing other lights. Roughly 9-12 spanning from the north to east and south orange and blue in nature and didn’t move. I am freaked out. I didn’t know who or what agency to file a report to.
I am college educated with a degree from Penn State, own my own home that I share with my son. I have no reason to waste time creating a story, then searching for society fringe to hock it on via this time consuming post.”
Aug. 18, 2020
Bethlehem
Description: “Disk shaped object blinking red and green lights was seen being followed by 3 low-flying planes with bright lights. A neon green ball of light fell from one of these crafts into trees and then they all flew away.”
Sept. 4, 2020
East Stroudsburg
Description: “Hovering crafts with lights.
Over our lake the first craft was a sphere that was slowly moving up and down changing light patterns. The second craft at first appeared to be an airplane in the distance but did not move, instead, the lights seemed to change with the original craft, as if communicating somehow. We saw the same 2 crafts over 2 hours later from a second location about a mile away.”
Dec. 2, 2020
Lehighton
Description: “It was obviously on fire yet no meteors were reported plus if it were a meteor it would be moving side ways this thing came straight down. It was moving faster than anything I’ve ever seen. It hit ground but yet never exploded saw it over the mountain top of the Lehigh valley tunnel.”
Dec. 31, 2020
Nazareth
Description: “Pulsating orange orb in eastern sky. My wife and I along with her son watched an orange pulsating light cross the sky. It appeared in the northeast sky towards the horizon and traveled slowly towards the east. No sound, no erratic motion. About an hour later 23:30 there was a second object. Same size, followed the same path. The airport is south of my location and I have never seen aircraft following that flight path.”
Aug. 15, 2021
Bethlehem
Description: “I was in the parking lot of the Casino at approximately 40.615570 -75.360677 looking East. There was a construction crane to my East. When I first saw the object, it was framed in the vertical and horizontal portions of the crane.
The object appeared to be very high in the sky. It was moving slowly to the South East. It was very bright silver. It appeared to be mostly round, but was so small that it was hard to tell. Since there is a construction crane in the video that I made, it may add some perspective to the size, distance, and speed.
I took a 50 second video with my cell phone. You have to expend the video to even see that something is there.
I watched the object of a couple of minutes before I entered the casino. Your director suggested that it may have been a Google Weather Balloon. I would accept that as being a reasonable explanation for what I saw.”
Oct. 7, 2021
Hellertown
Description: “No stars in the sky. Object with 3 amber lights that did not move for 15-20 min. until it slowly disappeared in the sky.
Not a star in the sky. Looking south there was something where I could see 3 amber lights glowing, shaped in a triangle, just sitting in the sky for 15-20 min. Never moved position until it slowly disappeared in the sky.”
March 10, 2022
Bethlehem
Description: “Three very bright objects in a triangular shape. Saw the object, knew immediately they weren’t stars. Checked SkyView to see if they were planets, looked up and the objects were gone.”
April 12, 2022
Allentown
Description: “Silvery opaque cylindrical shape with no wings, gliding slowly and silently across a perfectly blue sky. I was laying in the grass in Trexler Memorial Park looking up into a perfect blue sky, watching a puffy cloud lazily roll by. I happened to look a bit south west and notice a cylindrical shape with no wings, gliding slowly and silently in the blue sky heading south. I could see that it had 2 slight protruding portions near the front and rear. It was almost like a light silver color but appeared a bit opaque. I had to concentrate while staring at it to keep seeing its shape from merging into the blue sky. I could see contrails from a couple of further away airplanes since the park is near the Lehigh Valley Intl. airport. But this thing didn’t have any kind of exhaust signature or sound which is what made it weird. After about 10 or 15 seconds of tracking it, I found it was hard to see the outline against the blue shy and it just disappeared. It didn’t go fast or anything like that, it just sort of blended into the sky. I looked around and didn’t see anyone else looking up into the sky and pointing so I eventually went home. A friend of mine told me about this site and suggested that I file a report.”
May 22, 2022
Easton
Description: “Our Ring camera caught this-my husband took the dogs out in the morning & they acted weird. Checked the camera. We have video.
Our beagles went bonkers in the morning when my husband took them out. He came in & asked to look at the camera to see if our resident fox was about. Instead we see this light thing, the “ship”(if that is what it is), is invisible except these lights. It comes back at 4:49, sets off out camera again, swoops down & flew away. I can’t seem to download that video, but I did download the one from 3:14am. When you first look at it, a line of about 5 dot lights drop into our driveway, they then become light bars on either side of the “ship” and hover a little in our driveway. It’s invisible except for the lights. They seem to fly away. The video only lasts 1 minute.”
Connor Lagore
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