NUFORC Sighting 51321

Occurred: 2006-07-13 02:20 Local
Reported: 2006-07-13 03:51 Pacific
Duration: 5 seconds
No of observers: 1

Location: Redwood City, CA, USA

Shape: Circle
Characteristics: Lights on object, Aura or haze around object

Bright light moving at a high rate of speed from south to north.

I was driving in a westerly direction on Broadway near 5th avenue in Redwood City, CA at 0220hrs when I noticed a light in the sky through my front windshield. The sky was overcast and the moon, which seemed nearly full, was barely visible as a round circle and a glow through the clouds to the rear of my vehicle. The object was moving at a very high rate of speed from south to north. The object was visible as a bright light that was behind or in the clouds. I've seen meteors/shooting stars before, but I don't think they would have been this visible through the cloud cover. The object itself was only visible as a glowing white light in the sky, due to the clouds I could see no shape except for the light itself which was circular in shape. There was a glow of light around the object that was nearly three to four times the size of the actual light itself, but I suspect that this was due to the clouds. The object did not change course or move from a straight line and I quickly lost sight of it as it went behind some trees that line the street. I only saw the object through the front windshield of my vehicle as I was driving, it started out near the middle of the left side of my windshield and moved to the upper right side of my windshield over the 5 seconds or so that I saw it. It was not any sort of reflection of a streetlight or anything like that on my windshield, it was clearly an object in or behind the clouds. I did not notice any change in brightness that would indicate if it was moving toward me or away from me. I quicly drove to a more open area near an industrial park next to Highway 101, which took me only about 15 seconds, but I was unable to regain a visual on the object.

The object was not on any regular flight path that I'm aware of. Many flights into SFO fly past Redwood City, but they are closer to the bay and don't move nearly as fast or in the same diretion that this object did. I am hoping that maybe someone further north in San Mateo County or perhaps in the east bay (Oakland, Hayward, etc.) got a better view of this object since when I drove north there was hardly any cloud cover at all.

Posted 2006-07-16