AnomalySeptember 19
On September 19, 2009, 8 people who had no way of knowing about each other described a triangle shape, hovering.
no. 1 · wording independence 0.636 · coherence 4.056
Open, all of them
The nights nobody has ever named
The Phoenix Lights has a name. So does Stephenville, and Tinley Park, and O’Hare. These do not. Same engine, same archive, same checks, and nobody has ever written any of them down as an event.
24
nights when strangers in different towns described the same thing on the same day, wrote it in their own words rather than echoing each other, and nothing ordinary accounts for it. 107 people in total, none of whom knew about any of the others.
How the list gets this short
The engine is not looking for the strange. It is looking for convergence, and then it tries very hard to explain it away. Most convergence has a dull answer and we publish those as readily as these.
| nights where several strangers described the same thing at once | 263 |
| checked against the ordinary record so far | 120 |
| had a plausible ordinary cause, and are labelled as such | 79 |
| had none | 41 |
| of those, events history already has a name for | 17 |
| left with no name and no explanation | 24 |
What “checked” actually means
Every one of these was cross-referenced automatically against the USGS earthquake catalogue, NASA’s fireball and bolide survey, the computed position of Venus and the moon on that date at that place, and the calendar of nights when people set off fireworks. If any of those could account for what was described, the night is not on this page. It is on its own page, labelled with the ordinary explanation, where it stays.
And what it does not mean
Not that anything unexplainable happened. It means four specific ordinary causes were ruled out and nobody has looked further, because nobody has ever looked at these at all. There are 143 more candidate nights that have not been through the checking pass yet, and some of those will turn out to have answers too. This is a to-do list, not a conclusion.
The nights
Strongest first, by how many people, across how many separate places, and how independently they wrote. The weakest are at the bottom rather than left out, and the ones where the accounts read alike say so on their own line.
September 19
On September 19, 2009, 8 people who had no way of knowing about each other described a hooded figure.
no. 2 · wording independence 0.55 · coherence 3.681
July 15
On July 15, 2001, 6 people who had no way of knowing about each other described moving in formation, hovering.
no. 3 · wording independence 0.9 · coherence 4.046
September 19
On September 19, 2009, 6 people who had no way of knowing about each other described a beam of light, a bright white light.
no. 4 · wording independence 0.526 · weak, these accounts read alike · coherence 3.664
September 19
On September 19, 2009, 5 people who had no way of knowing about each other described a bright white light.
no. 5 · wording independence 0.667 · coherence 3.261
August 18
On August 18, 2012, 4 people who had no way of knowing about each other described red lights, moving in formation.
no. 6 · wording independence 0.892 · coherence 3.395
October 24
On October 24, 2012, 6 people who had no way of knowing about each other described moving in formation, hovering, a triangle shape.
no. 7 · wording independence 0.778 · coherence 3.807
September 11
On September 11, 1999, 4 people who had no way of knowing about each other described hovering.
no. 8 · wording independence 0.857 · coherence 3.32
December 12
On December 12, 2007, 4 people who had no way of knowing about each other described moving in formation.
no. 9 · wording independence 0.853 · coherence 3.31
February 16
On February 16, 2000, 8 people who had no way of knowing about each other described a triangle shape, moving in formation.
no. 10 · wording independence 0.793 · coherence 3.727
May 27
On May 27, 2009, 6 people who had no way of knowing about each other described hovering, a photograph or recording exists.
no. 11 · wording independence 0.621 · coherence 2.969
November 8
On November 8, 2012, 4 people who had no way of knowing about each other described red lights, moving in formation.
no. 12 · wording independence 0.821 · coherence 3.041
October 23
On October 23, 2012, 4 people who had no way of knowing about each other described hovering.
no. 13 · wording independence 0.778 · coherence 3.543
October 23
On October 23, 2011, 3 people who had no way of knowing about each other described red lights.
no. 14 · wording independence 0.955 · coherence 3.044
February 21
On February 21, 2014, 3 people who had no way of knowing about each other described red lights, an orange orb, pulsing light.
no. 15 · wording independence 0.933 · coherence 3.756
December 11
On December 11, 2004, 3 people who had no way of knowing about each other described a triangle shape, moving in formation.
no. 16 · wording independence 0.871 · coherence 4.331
January 7
On January 7, 2002, 3 people who had no way of knowing about each other described green light, an unexplained boom.
no. 17 · wording independence 0.828 · coherence 3.507
April 16
On April 16, 2008, 4 people who had no way of knowing about each other described hovering, an unexplained boom.
no. 18 · wording independence 0.914 · coherence 2.957
May 14
On May 14, 2000, 3 people who had no way of knowing about each other described red lights, a triangle shape.
no. 19 · wording independence 0.757 · coherence 3.341
September 19
On September 19, 2009, 3 people who had no way of knowing about each other described a beam of light, hovering, vanishing suddenly.
no. 20 · wording independence 0.591 · coherence 2.952
April 20
On April 20, 2000, 3 people who had no way of knowing about each other described moving in formation, a triangle shape.
no. 21 · wording independence 0.861 · coherence 3.281
November 22
On November 22, 2012, 3 people who had no way of knowing about each other described a triangle shape, an orange orb, hovering.
no. 22 · wording independence 0.811 · coherence 3.173
November 15
On November 15, 2001, 3 people who had no way of knowing about each other described rumbling.
no. 23 · wording independence 0.8 · coherence 3.15
February 4
On February 4, 2000, 3 people who had no way of knowing about each other described moving in formation, a triangle shape.
no. 24 · wording independence 0.731 · coherence 3.602
Were you there on any of these dates?
That is the entire reason this page exists. Every one of these is a handful of people and a date. One more account could turn any of them into something, or rule it out, and both are worth having.
Tell us what you sawBuilt from 43,684 accounts by the method described at /method, which includes the ten famous events used to test whether any of this works and the one it failed to find