The year 2012 started off with a bang when it came to UFOs. Not only was the first day of the year a big one for them, but the last day of 2011 was as well. Those two dates had many times the normal number of UFO sightings reported to both the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) and at the National UFO Reporting Center (NUFORC). I plan to go over those sightings in an upcoming hub. For now we will explore another, lesser known UFO storm that occurred on Thursday the 19th of January 2012, and centered on the state of Florida. What follows represents one third of the UFO reports that were submitted to either MUFON or NUFORC that are available on the internet for sightings that occurred on 1/19/12 (clicking on the case number at the end of each account will take you to the original sighting report).



Beginning at 7pm on the porch of a restaurant in Celebration (near Orlando), Florida, on a clear and still evening with a 60 degree temperature, patrons there witnessed the start of a flap of reports of a bright and large orb of amber to reddish-orange light that traversed the sky. At the time of this sighting the fireball type of UFO was moving from east to west a few miles away. After moving a few miles parallel to the ground, too slow to be a meteor, it then hovered and began to emit very large sparks. They were "coming off one side that appeared to go up and out like an arc." It remained stationary for a few minutes, changing color to a greenish, then whitish hue, and then back to the orange glow before fading from view (while remaining in the same spot). This sighting lasted about 10 minutes. (NUFORC Case: S86719)





At 7:30-7:40pm, a man looking at the sky from his front yard in Port St. Lucie, Florida saw the same red-orange glowing ball in the south or southeast. He perceived a faint reddish trail emanating from it but, just when he might have thought it was just an unusually colored meteor of some kind, the object then appeared to be projecting a beam of white light from its body towards the tail area or the side that it was traveling away from. The light wasn't constant but came in bursts and appeared to be detached from the object (not connected to it by a continuous length like if it came from a flashlight). After a minute the white light disappeared and the red ball and tail remained. The red tail then started to fade from site. The object then traveled for a few more seconds before it blinked off. (MUFON Case: 34993)





(MUFON Case: 34994) Also at 7:30pm, in St. Augustine, another man saw the object more closely (which appeared to be at least 600 feet above the ground) while he drove his car. He too saw the tail and beam of light (which he said extended outward about 70 feet) accompanied by a mist. The witness said that it moved across the sky for about one mile in a two minute period going from west to east over I95. During the last 30 seconds it started to gain altitude and stopped shining the white beam of light. It hovered for another minute then disappeared. Another report said that in it's final minute it "pulsated about 3 times, then the light went back solid then it disappeared." (MUFON Case: #34991 at 7:44pm from Port St Lucie).





At 7:38pm, a retired police deputy, while exiting a Walmart at the east edge of Lake Wales, saw the orange ball of light traveling in a straight line at a slow rate of speed, east of his location and heading south. He said it was brighter and larger than Jupiter. He witnessed it for a few minutes before it blinked out. (MUFON Case: 34983)





At 7:40pm, over a dozen patrons of a restaurant in Winter Park, Florida saw a bright glowing rectangular shape in the sky appearing to approach them from the north. "After 10 seconds, it stopped and formed a very bright fireball. It was about four times as big as the North Star, which was conveniently next to it. It remained this shape and then began to periodically drop or shed a glitter-like substance from it. After glowing profusely, it began to flicker and then disappear." They all witnessed the object for about five minutes. It was not seen again after that. (NUFORC Case: S86706)





Here is another report from 7:40pm that was written so well that I decided to include it verbatim.

"My boyfriend and I were traveling to Wellington, FL last night heading North on Floridas Turnpike. I was looking ahead and noticed a rather large orange orb moving slowly, less than 400 feet from the ground. It was traveling eastward and suddenly stopped moving. Apparently the orange light was at the front of the craft. This orange large light suddenly tuned off, but we could both still see the outline of something with a long fiery looking trial. It aimed upwards at that time and rose to a very high altitude, then hovered at the higher altitude and continued to transform into something we could not see the shape of. It also was observed at that moment to have a red flashing light which was very small as compared to the large orange orb. We got off the exit and pulled over to watch it. As the form of the ship shifted to something indiscernible in shape, we focused on the fiery emanation that seemed to power it, which suddenly dimmed down. At that moment of the dimming, we then saw three short spurts of what appeared to be some orangey luminous energy emanating out of the back of the craft. They looked light pyramids of light to me. One, then two then three. Then all dimmed and all we could see what a light chem, vapor or energy trail. We drove and followed it but it suddenly transformed into what appeared to be a star then traveled rapidly upward in a curvy s-type manner straight up then turned toward the south at a rate of speed beyond comprehension, and vanished. " (MUFON Case: 35008)





At 8:10pm, from Indialantic, Florida (another short report that I am quoting here)..

"As I was driving south on state road A1A I observed a red stationary light about 100 ft off the ground over a strip mall. I pulled into the mall and got out of my truck. Then I noticed 2 other people watching it as well. We heard no sound and saw nothing but a red light. After about 5 minutes it started to move to the southwest and rise to a higher altitude and disappeared. The couple told me that they saw 6 of the same lights on New Years eve in the same town over the ocean in a V formation." (NUFORC Case: S86697)





At just past 9pm from Port Richie, Florida, the witness first saw two separate pairs of red lights (four in total). One of them disappeared but shortly after that the sky was filled with about a dozen more of the orbs of light. "They were all flying in typical UFO patterns as seen in the 1950s Utah footage, and also the NASA UFO-footage shown by David Sereda. They flew to the right, blinking off and on, into and out of existence, almost, and all with the same reddish color." They then started to blink out for good, one at a time, over a period of two minutes. He then reportedly saw one or two lights at three different times, one from a different location, over the course of the next 40 minutes. The witness ended the report by saying that "FOX 13 news at 10pm or 11pm...said that NASA and the military had launched a defense satellite from Cape Canaveral earlier that night. It was carried on a rocket, and contained a scanning and imaging system." That supposed event of course wouldn't conform to the description given by witnesses here over the course of almost three hours-RJ (MUFON Case: 35017)



