NUFORC Sighting 22548

Occurred: 2002-04-15 21:00 Local
Reported: 2002-04-17 18:37 Pacific
Duration: approx. 20 minutes
No of observers: 3

Location: Imperial, CA, USA

Shape: Light
Characteristics: Lights on object

Lights along the desert mountains

My daughter's 14 & 16 and I were heading west on Worthington Road at approx. 9:00 p.m. When we got closer to the El Centro Naval Air Station we noticed that there were a series of lights along the moutain range to the southwest by the Mexican border. There were, at times, anywhere from 4 to 6 lights along the mountain. Some would fade out and others would appear. At first we thought they were headlights from cars on the highway.

It was coming up on shift change at Centinela State Prison and officers that live in Alpine and San Diego would have been coming into the valley at this time. The more we watch though the more we realized that some of the lights were actually higher than the mountains and some were closer, actually over the valley floor. The color was generally yellowish-orange, but occasionally they were bright blue-white. We have seen these lights out there before on a number of other occasions, but always assumed they were headlights on the highway. After really watching them the other night, now we're not so sure.

Posted 2002-04-25