Top 10 states in the US for UFO sightings.

[CasperParks]

Top 10 states with the most UFO sightings: USA Today Network Mary Bowerman. (http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2015/01/19/ufo-sightings-top-ten-states/21997491/)

The National UFO Reporting Center has a State Report Index that breaks down UFO sightings by state, duration of sighting, shape and description. Here are the 10 states with the most UFO sightings, according to the center:

1. California: 11,092

2. Florida: 5,017

3. Washington: 4,951

4. Texas: 4,313

5. New York: 3,799

6. Illinois: 3,031

7. Arizona: 3,143

8. Ohio: 2,883

9. Michigan: 2,424

10. North Carolina: 2,247

Sightings in the database range from the 1950s to 2015.

:ufo:

[CasperParks]

With the exception of Arizona, each state listed has something in common: Large bodies of water.

California, Florida, Washington, Texas, New York and North Carolina have an ocean lapping their shores.

Michigan, Ohio, Illinois have the Great Lakes.

Does anyone know of resource for top states and parts of the globe for alien abductions?

[majicbar]

:ufo:

When I get a chance I will try to correct this table. What is wrong with it, speaking as a professional geographer and cartographer, is that it is the kind of 'lie' that I especially found most grating in my experience. (One of my favorite books, "How to Lie with maps".) All charts and maps with this kind of data need to be re-weighted for population and area. Once normalized for population density the data will often show surprising patterns. To further justify such a table, there are some other factors which would help tease out patterns of occurrence. Here in Minnesota, and in most Northern states in the Winter, we staying indoors. Spotting UFOs in my experience is directly based on how much time you get to see the sky, even when it is cloudy. (Curiously, all the UFOs that I've seen were in clear skies.) I am not going to try to do that much work on this, but adjusting for population density should help establish some patterns that are more honest in seeing the real UFO experience. The problem is that I will have to access the original data to see if the smaller states had any excessive sightings relative to their population density. (Another issue is that this period of time has seen large population growth through time and the database does not aggregate for the data by decade which is really required to to give the data a more 4-D feel.)

http://www.nuforc.org/webreports/ndxloc.html ....which gives us the original, complete list for the United States and Canada. It only specifies the rest of the World in aggregate.

[CasperParks]

When I get a chance I will try to correct this table. What is wrong with it, speaking as a professional geographer and cartographer, is that it is the kind of 'lie' that I especially found most grating in my experience. (One of my favorite books, "How to Lie with maps".) All charts and maps with this kind of data need to be re-weighted for population and area. Once normalized for population density the data will often show surprising patterns. To further justify such a table, there are some other factors which would help tease out patterns of occurrence. Here in Minnesota, and in most Northern states in the Winter, we staying indoors. Spotting UFOs in my experience is directly based on how much time you get to see the sky, even when it is cloudy. (Curiously, all the UFOs that I've seen were in clear skies.) I am not going to try to do that much work on this, but adjusting for population density should help establish some patterns that are more honest in seeing the real UFO experience. The problem is that I will have to access the original data to see if the smaller states had any excessive sightings relative to their population density. (Another issue is that this period of time has seen large population growth through time and the database does not aggregate for the data by decade which is really required to to give the data a more 4-D feel.)

http://www.nuforc.org/webreports/ndxloc.html ....which gives us the original, complete list for the United States and Canada. It only specifies the rest of the World in aggregate.

I do not spend much time gazing skyward in winter months. Other day, an unusual starry night here and bitter cold! After the dog finished his duties, we both rushed back indoors.

Living near populated areas, light pollution hinders decent viewing.

[majicbar]

When I get a chance I will try to correct this table. What is wrong with it, speaking as a professional geographer and cartographer, is that it is the kind of 'lie' that I especially found most grating in my experience. (One of my favorite books, "How to Lie with maps".) All charts and maps with this kind of data need to be re-weighted for population and area. Once normalized for population density the data will often show surprising patterns. To further justify such a table, there are some other factors which would help tease out patterns of occurrence. Here in Minnesota, and in most Northern states in the Winter, we staying indoors. Spotting UFOs in my experience is directly based on how much time you get to see the sky, even when it is cloudy. (Curiously, all the UFOs that I've seen were in clear skies.) I am not going to try to do that much work on this, but adjusting for population density should help establish some patterns that are more honest in seeing the real UFO experience. The problem is that I will have to access the original data to see if the smaller states had any excessive sightings relative to their population density. (Another issue is that this period of time has seen large population growth through time and the database does not aggregate for the data by decade which is really required to to give the data a more 4-D feel.)

http://www.nuforc.org/webreports/ndxloc.html ....which gives us the original complete list of the sighting by state, including the Canadian provinces.



I have been working on a geographic analysis of the data that is represented in these sightings. Raw numbers of sightings, as is represented in the headline, is no better when you see the whole list. The inherent problem of such a listing of places vs. numbers of observations is that the populations of these states vary and the aerial sizes of each state is different from the others. What is required is to normalize the areas and populations and then relate these to the numbers of observations. Having first done this for the Canadian observations, in converting them to square miles for inclusion with the U.S. data, I am forced by the numbers to conclude that the UFOs are being seen because they want to be. Places with the largest area and lowest population have a very large excess of observations by a factor of 1000 to 1. If the UFOs were uniformly flying over the Earth, large areas with low populations would see the least sightings when normalized. Opportunities in high density areas to observe the phenomena would lead one to expect them to have the most sightings but they are the least likely to see them. The Canadian data indicates that they have a low interest in Eastern Canada, and an unusual interest in Ontario and British Columbia. Their interest in Northwest Canada specifically indicates they are observing us and not the Earth.