NUFORC Sighting 37526

Occurred: 2004-06-10 18:00 Local
Reported: 2004-06-11 12:59 Pacific
Duration: 1
No of observers: 5

Location: San Antonio, TX, USA

Shape: Disk
Characteristics: Left a trail, Landed

Unexplained circles in 1 acre yard

Hope you still use this email address..

After it rained about 8 inches 2 days ago at my father's house in China Grove, a suburb of San Antonio, TX, 2 circles (one inside the other) appeared behind our swimming pool. Our yard is about 1/2 acre. The circles are dead bermuda grass with live bermuda grass in the rest of the yard. A few dirt patches happen to cross the lines of dead grass, and there are no tread marks. There are no tire marks leading into the circle either. I found a few long strands of the grass, and the part near the root is green. The part at the very end is also green. The middle of the strand that crossed the dead zone is brown.

I took a lab-quality ferrous/non-ferrous metal detector to the entire portion of the yard and found nothing unusual in or out of the circle (my first thought was maybe a really old septic tank started seeping through cracks due to the extensive rain).

There are no tread marks at all. This happened immediately after a big rain, so the dirt spots would easily accept tire tracks.

There are no bent or broken strands of grass, and nothing else seems unusual except for the dead spots. The geometry is too perfect to be natural. I know there are lawn diseases that cause brown circles, but the lines are too thin, too much diameter, and too perfect. There is too much live grass between the circles.

On the outer circle, there are two equally geometric "dashes" as thick as the circle's line, pointing outward.

I have lots of pictures I will send if you like. I still want to make sure this email account works before I take the time to zip and attach them. I have pictures up close, far away, with/without flash, 12-inch ruler in scene, and the strands of crab/bermuda grass that crossed the dead line.

The lines that make both circles are 5.4 inches wide. The large circle's edge is about 27 inches outside of the small circle. The outer circle is about 8.5 feet in diameter. The inner circle has a 5 foot 4 inch diameter.

This is driving my curiosity level crazy. Please tell me if you have heard of anything like this before.

((name deleted))

NUFORC Note:

We have requested copies of the photos, and may post one, or more, if they look interesting to us. PD

Posted 2004-06-18