NUFORC Sighting 22572

Occurred: 2002-04-18 20:30 Local
Reported: 2002-04-18 21:39 Pacific
Duration: 20 minutes
No of observers: 2

Location: Tubac, AZ, USA

Shape: Light
Characteristics: Lights on object, Emitted other objects

Unusual lights in southern Arizona

Earlier this evening I noticed 3 foggy bands in the sky in an otherwise extremely dry southern Arizona sky. About 20 minutes later my friend called me outside to watch unusual lights he was observing. In the western sky 4 or 5 blinking lights were moving about in no particular order. Every once in awhile 3 or 4 very bright triangular white lights would seem to emit from the blinking light in a staggered formation.I saw this happen about three times. Then one light emitted 4 or 5 very bright balls of white light in a straight line out the back. These emitted lights lasted only for seconds, though the blinking lights were constant. I don't know what flares look like, so that is what it could have been, except for one thing...there was one light that did not blink. It moved very very rapidly diagonally and seemed to stop on a dime and change direction. Then it started to blink again and move towards another blinking light. I have no way to judge distance, but they seemed to be very high in the atmosphere. After 15 or so minutes, all the lights moved north towards Tucson (50 miles away. The unusual thing about the blinking lights was that they seemed to move in a very disorganized way. 45 minutes later, the foggy bands were still in the same place in the sky, though I don't know if the two are connected.

Posted 2002-04-25