Where your state ranks for unexplained sightings

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UFOs: Where your state ranks for unexplained sightings
Edward C. Baig, USA TODAY Published 12:01 a.m. ET July 2, 2019 | Updated 5:42 p.m. ET July 2, 2019

The truth is out there. Extraterrestrials are more likely to visit from the North.

That’s one way, anyway, to interpret the results from a new report on the states with the most unidentified flying object sightings per capita. Washington state topped that list, followed in order by Montana, Vermont, Alaska and Maine.

Or maybe Northerners just believe more.

So much for Roswell, New Mexico, or the lonely Nevada desert. New Mexico came in 8th on the list; Nevada, 13th.

Meanwhile, the states with the fewest UFO sightings per capita — Texas, Louisiana, Georgia, Mississippi and Alabama -- are all down South.

The list was put together by the analysts and space nerds at internet provider SatelliteInternet.com, which culled data from the National UFO Reporting Center and the U.S. Census, to attract attention in time for World UFO Day on July 2. (Yep, there is such a day.)

It must be pointed out that Washington state, which had about 78 sightings per 100,000 people, is home to the National UFO Reporting Center, a repository for such sightings.

Among them: A California couple reported seeing three red lights in a triangle shape, described as "huge," low in the sky.

In Orlando, Florida, a person claimed (in all caps) to see “15 STRANGE OVAL LIGHTS ABOVE THE LOW CLOUDS,” south of the city.

And someone in Heppner, Oregon, noticed a fast-moving, classic cigar-shaped high altitude object with no wings.

Though UFOs have fascinated people for generations, they have been in the news of late, with recent reports that the U.S. Navy is drafting new guidelines for pilots who witness unexplained aircraft because of increases in sightings near sensitive military outposts and at sea.

Some members of the U.S. Senate have also received classified briefings on UFO sightings from the Pentagon.

The sightings are more common in summer, which is not entirely surprising since it's a season when more earthlings spend time outdoors. Though SatelliteInternet.com offered another possible explanation: “maybe aliens go on summer vacations with their kids, too.”