SAN DIEGO — Have you experienced an aerial phenomenon? If you ask some San Diegans that question, their answer would be “yes.”
According to the National UFO Reporting Center (NUFORC), several unidentified flying object (UFO) sightings in the region have been reported so far this year.
NUFORC is a non-governmental, nonprofit corporation that investigates UFO sightings. The center says it receives, records, corroborates and documents reports from individuals who believe they have witnessed an aerial phenomenon.
Since it was founded in 1974, NUFORC says it has processed over 170,000 reports, which are listed online by date and location. The center explained that guaranteed anonymity to callers is a longstanding policy of the corporation.
NUFORC makes available to the public all of its data in summary form with the time, location, duration of the sighting and a short summary describing the UFO.
As of Aug. 6, there have been a total of 15 UFO sightings across San Diego County that have been reported to NUFORC this year.
Here’s a detailed breakdown of those alleged sightings, according to NUFORC:
*The National UFO Reporting Center says it makes no claims as to the validity of the information in any of these reports. Obvious hoaxes have been omitted, however, most reports have been posted exactly as received in the author’s own words.
| Date | Time | Location | Shape | Duration | Summary |
| 2/9/23 | 3:23 p.m. | Escondido | Sphere | 30 seconds | Extremely small sphere at extremely fast speed. |
| 2/17/23 | 7:10 a.m. | San Diego | N/A | 1-2 minutes | No sound. It went right over an FAA TRACON facility. |
| 3/1/23 | 7:35 p.m.. | Oceanside | Star | About 10 minutes | Looked up at the sky, these 2 “stars” shining very brightly side by side. (NUFORC Note: Jupiter and Venus) |
| 4/24/23 | 2:32 p.m. | San Diego | Orb | About 30 seconds | I say an orb… |
| 5/3/23 | 5;27 p.m. | San Diego | Rectangle | 2-4 minutes | Saw a distant, rotating, wobbling, dark plank (flat rectangle or oval, etc.). |
| 5/6/23 | 6:24 p.m. | Chula Vista | Unknown | 30 minutes | Shinning object higher than keys. I have a video. |
| 6/13/23 | 10:50 p.m. | Oceanside | Orb | 2 minutes | Bright lights in sky below aircraft then quickly faded to nothing — vanished. |
| 6/16/23 | 1:05 p.m. | Carlsbad | Orb | 5 minutes | Saw many of these moving in different directions and changing directions. |
| 6/21/23 | 8:35 p.m. | Del Mar | Light | 2 minutes | Looked up while walking north towards Villa de la Valle, saw brightest white light. Thought ‘star’ but way too close to be a star. |
| 6/23/23 | 6:30 p.m. | San Diego | Circle | A few seconds | It has crevices in it. We snapped a pic. |
| 7/13/23 | 9:10 p.m. | Oceanside | Cross | 30 seconds | Silent flying object moving slow then disappeared. |
| 7/19/23 | 7:27 a.m. | Lemon Grove | Cigar | 2 minutes | Object had ‘fins’ so not an airplane. |
| 7/19/23 | 9:59 p.m. | San Diego | Light | 15 minutes | Saw a massive light in the sky above San Diego, was brighter than anything. |
| 7/20/23 | 4:41 p.m. | Bonita | Sphere | 2 minutes | Witnessed bright spherical object that was at high altitude. |
| 7/20/23 | 10 p.m. | San Diego | Triangle | 5 minutes | Two pictures; one right after the other. Difference of the second picture is a zoomed in and then within a minute they were gone. |
NUFORC says reports are posted on periodic basis as they are processed, meaning there may be more sightings for this year that have yet to be posted on its site.
