Aliens tend to visit Maine on Friday evenings, says UFO sighting report

We somehow missed the news that last Wednesday was World UFO Day — July 2 supposedly commemorates the crash-landing of an unidentified flying object in Roswell, New Mexico. The day that launched a thousand conspiracy theories.

Anyway, in honor of that day, the Economist magazine posted a handy dandy graphic guide to UFO sighting in America. The results are quite intriguing; mostly that Maine ranks so comparatively high in number of theoretical close encounters.

ufo chart

The report also finds that nationally, UFOs are most sighted between the hours of 6 p.m. and midnight, and most often on Fridays — when a lot of people are at home with a frosty adult beverage in hand. In the old timey days, they saw pink elephants; now they see little green men.

As far as states with the highest rates of UFO sightings go, Maine ranks in the top ten; behind leaders Washington, Montana and Vermont, but in the same ranking — between 30 and 40 sightings reported per 100,000 residents — as New Hampshire, Oregon, Idaho, Arizona and alien ground zero, New Mexico. It also probably helps that our skies are clearer than cities with large urban areas, so it’s easier to see unusual lights in the sky.

Have you ever seen something in the sky you couldn’t explain?

Emily Burnham

About Emily Burnham

Emily Burnham is a Maine native, UMaine graduate, proud Bangorian and a writer for the Bangor Daily News, where she's worked since 2004. She reports on everything from local bands to local food to all the cool things going on in the Greater Bangor area. In her quest for stories, she's seen countless concerts and plays, been lobster fishing, interviewed celebrities, hung out with water buffalo and played in a ukulele orchestra. She's interested in everything that happens in Maine.