NUFORC Sighting 94936

Occurred: 2012-12-03 02:30 Local
Reported: 2012-12-03 01:25 Pacific
Duration: 3 minutes
No of observers: 1

Location: Miami, FL, USA

Shape: Light

Red lights flying over Miami, Florida, December 3rd 2012

On December 3rd, 2012, at approximately 2:30am, I was driving south on Miami's 826/Palmetto expressway. I had left my best friend's house after watching a movie. While on the highway I noticed maybe 10-13 red lights in the night sky. Because my car was dustier than usual due to local construction, I had to roll down my driver's window to get a clearer view. The red lights seemed so out of place I decided to stop the car and parked it on the emergency lane. They were fairly low, close to the western horizon and they were slowly moving due south. They were spread out but maintained their places, all appearing to move at the same speed. They reminded me of aircraft in formation but the pattern was irregular, rather like a constellation's shape. They were essentially red lights, and were only slightly larger than any star in the sky and they seemed to twinkle softly as stars do. Because I didn't have a great camera on me, I called my best friend on my cell phone! and told him to run out and look west. But as he was getting out of his apartment, they all began to fade slowly and one after another until they disappeared entirely.

As an artist, I consider myself an extremely open-minded person. But I try to approach such situations with a rational mind. I have never before seen anything like this in person. I am also sure there must have been several people who witnessed this. The lights covered at least a sixth of the night sky. While there wasn't a great deal of traffic at 2:30am, the city wasn't entirely asleep either. Anyone driving due west on several roads would have seen these lights gliding overhead. I don't drink nor do I take any hallucinogenic drugs and I was wide awake when I witnessed this.

As soon as I got home, I immediately went online to see if there was any news of a meteor shower or maybe a satellite burning up and found nothing. I did find an article on a British news site of what is "believed to be" a recent meteor shower. But the pictures show a phenomenon that looks entirely different. I then googled pictures of meteors and similar events and again, completely different images came up. When finally going on youtube at about 3:30am, I searched for the terms "red+lights+sky" and found a few videos showing lights over Galveston and Farmingdale and finally found a match for what I saw! While mysteries make life more exciting, explanations can be more comforting. I would very much like an answer to this one. It was beautiful but slightly unsettling.

Posted 2012-12-20