UFO Sightings in Utah and Nevada .. a short study

Nevada and Utah are combined in this study for a better map and more meaningful statistics. Very different in some ways, they share desert scenery and a long border.

Sightings eras are in colors: 71 events from 1896 through 1959 show as Blue spots. 104 more from 1960 through 1974 are Violet, and 41 from 1975 to the present are Green.

Utah had more sightings (134) than Nevada (81), mainly due to a single researcher, Dr. Frank Salisbury. His work shows as the violet cluster of events in Northeastern Utah.

The geographical center of the two-state area is at 111:53W - 40:45N, a spot along I-80 east of the Bonneville Salt Flats and West of Grantsville, UT in Tooele County.

The earliest NV-UT sighting listed was 10 Dec. 1896 when a fireball was seen widely in Northeastern Nevada. *U* no longer lists weak cases like that.

See a wider map of the Southwest States.

<= Daily Histogram: Nevada & Utah

Sightings for all years and both states are combined here to show seasonal changes.

The tallest peak is 5 cases in early July (all years combined). The jagged white running average shows activity highest in Autumn.

The busiest months were September (33 events) and October (29) versus an average of 15 for all other months. There were only 4 December cases, for both states and all years together.

The busiest weekday was Thursday (37) for all years. Most NV-UT sightings are in the late evening hours. Desert and grassland venues are most common.

See similar studies for California Ohio Texas Pennsylvania Florida New York Washington Mass.+CT+RI New Mexico Michigan Missouri Oregon Carolinas Arizona Illinois & Indiana Wisconsin & Minnesota Georgia & Alabama Montana & Idaho

<= 50-Year Graph of Nevada and Utah

This is the first study to show the mid 1960s towering over the banner years of 1947, 1952, 1957 in other states. Again, this results from the work of Frank Salisbury, as published in his book The Utah UFO Display, 1974 Devin Adair, New Greenwich, CT. ISBN 0-815-97000-5

The busiest years for NV-UT are few:

1947 (17) 1952 (16) 1966 (29)
1967 (24) 1968 (18) 1995 (10)

Years not shown have 9 or fewer listings.
1957, a wave year in other states shows only 2 listings for both states combined.

The earliest sighting of a real anomaly was in August of 1910 in Vernal, UT. A disk was seen low over the desert, buzzing as it made a slow descent. Finally it streaked away at high speed.

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