Move over Hollywood stars — Angelenos are apparently spotting far stranger things in the sky these days.
Just hours after the Pentagon released more than 160 newly declassified UFO files teased by President Trump as “very interesting,” a new study crowned LA as the fifth UFO hotspot in America, with 211 reported sightings logged since 2015.
The bombshell report examined data from the National UFO Reporting Center (NUFORC), a database that catalogs sightings of unexplained aerial phenomena across the country. Based on recent accounts from Southern California, Angelenos have been seeing plenty of bizarre activity overhead.
In one 2025 report filed with NUFORC, a witness described spotting a white orb the size of a Mini Cooper car in the sky that was “going up and down and sideways slowly. People passed me by and couldn’t believe what they were watching.”
In March, two witnesses in the Hollywood area observed a white “fireball” from a third floor balcony around 5:30 p.m., “near the direction of the setting sun.”
The object was “extremely luminous, appearing almost like a second sun. The object had no visible structure, shape, or blinking lights. It appeared as a steady, concentrated light source.”
After a couple of motionless minutes, “it suddenly accelerated horizontally to the right and exited the visible area extremely quickly. The motion covered roughly three finger-widths at arm’s length in about one second.”
The object’s acceleration was described as “instantaneous” and silent, without leaving a “trail before rapidly moving out of view.”
A separate 2022 sighting from Glendale described what appeared to be a “metallic sphere” darting erratically across the afternoon sky before abruptly shooting upward at high speed.
In 2026, there have been three sightings in Los Angeles reported so far with NUFORC. However, after being reviewed by the organization, one of those was thought to be a drone. In 2025, they logged 14 unexplainable aerial sightings coming from LA.
The city with the most UFO sightings identified in the study was Phoenix, Arizona with 272, followed by New York City with 266, Las Vegas with 250, Portland with 218, and Los Angeles in fifth.
Researchers reportedly analyzed sightings submitted between 2015 and February 2026 to identify geographic clusters and seasonal patterns.
November was found to be LA’s busiest month for UFO sightings.
Interest in extraterrestrials has exploded in recent years thanks to congressional hearings and whistleblower claims involving alleged secret government programs investigating UFO’s.
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