"I was stunned by the experience" - Mystery Ball of Light Seen Over the Dallas Area

• When: December 31st, 2012
• Where: Seagoville (Dallas area)
• What: Unidentified orange ball of light that appears to enlarge before mysteriously disappearing
  

A UFO sighting from more than a decade ago is just now being reported to MUFON by a "MUFON field investigator trainee." The witness wrote a thorough and detailed description of seeing a strange ball of light in over their home:

New Year's Day: Bright, Intense Red/Orange Light

I want to disclose that I am a MUFON field investigator trainee. I did report this sighting to the NUFORC in July of 2013. I did not think of reporting it to MUFON until now. The only other research I have done on this event was a general search in the NUFORC database immediately after reporting it. I did discover a similar object (actually objects) had been reported in Florida about an hour after our sighting. Otherwise, I think a non-biased investigator best handles the matter. For months, I tried to explain the sighting away, telling myself it was ball-lightening. However, it was very dry, and the weather was very mild. Ball lightning didn't fit the profile. That was when I decided to report it. The event did stick with me and still does to this day.

It was New Year's Eve 2012, and I was recovering from lung surgery, so I was resting at home with my son and husband. I was in poor health because I had developed an autoimmune disease earlier that year. I was not myself at all. I mention this because my family and I were in a very strange place. The condition was difficult to diagnose, and we all believed I wouldn't live to see Christmas that year. At that time, we were just happy to be together.

We were watching a movie, and we heard fireworks outside and realized that it was now New Year's Day. My husband stepped out on our screened-in porch to have a cigarette, and my son and I remained in the living room. Just a minute or so after he stepped out, my husband hit the back patio door and was yelling, "There's something in the sky!". My husband doesn't get excited like that often, so I knew he saw something very strange. My son and I looked at each other, slowly got up, and started to make our way outside. It was apparent we both were hesitant because we knew we wouldn't be able to "unsee" a UFO. It was going to be life-changing.
He would have been 13 years old at that time. We were all 3 very open-minded about UFOs and had grown up exposed to the subject. We occasionally discussed the topic when UFOs came on television or on the news. We all believed but had never witnessed an unidentified flying object firsthand.

My son and I immediately witnessed a brilliant red/orange orb in the sky. It got larger as it got closer to us. It must have been traveling quickly because it started far off around the Ft. Worth area, NW; soon, it was much closer (apparent by the change in size), stopping in the Western sky. I knew the orb had stopped because it was behind a tree in the backyard, stationary in the sky. This tree has full foliage in the winter, but I could still see the bright object through the thick leaves. It stayed there for about 1 minute, and then it was gone. Just disappeared.

My husband told me that he thought it was a mortar-type firework that hadn't exploded and was about to land somewhere and cause a fire. He quickly realized it was not a firework, so he came to get us. He managed to get a very short, shaky video of it which we no longer have. It was strange because it was not large or red on the video. It simply looked like a moving white light that could be easily mistaken for a star or satellite except for the rapid movement. I also managed to photograph it when it was behind the tree, but I will have to find it. The screens on my back patio are solar screens. I initially thought that's why his video looked so different from what we witnessed. But my photo was taken behind the same screen, and the reddish brilliance was apparent.

After the sighting, we went back to our movie inside. Although, no one was watching. We would occasionally look at each other with disbelief. I know several times I would say, "Did we just really see that?". I was stunned by the experience.

I will try to locate the video and photo on our old cell phones. If I can find them, I will add them to this report or provide them to a field investigator. I'm not sure what else to say about the incident.

The witness compares their sighting to another sighting that reportedly happened during the same time frame in Florida. I personally found numerous UFO reports on MUFON and NUFORC from December 31st, 2012, so I narrowed them down to Texas, and was left with only several. The most compelling of those was one out of Richmond, Texas (Houston area), in which the witness described seeing an "amber," "weird-looking light" that, upon closer inspection, appeared to be attached to a black triangle (case 45006):

The shape was triangle and it has a front light that was amber in color. The UFO did not make any sound.

It was dec 31, 2013 approximately 2115 hours and the sky was very cloudy. I was sitting in my car when i noticed a weird looking light up in the sky at northwest moving southeast. The light was amber in color. the light seem to flew at a very low altitude and my first thought was it might be some kind of firework. as i got out of my car for a better view i noticed a black triangle shape object behind the weird light. Since it was cloudy i could not see anything above the strange object. Whats even weirder was that the flying object did not make a single sound. I know it was flying very close by but there was no sound. I lost sight of the light and object as it flew directly above me because it was very cloudy at that time.

Now, as for the country at large, as I mentioned, many people were seeing strange orange lights in 2012. However these could be attributed to Chinese lanterns, drones, or other man-made or even natural explanations. It's hard to know without further investigation. Here's an example of the types of reports that seem to have been fairly  common in 2012 (case 45035 out of Baton Rouge, Louisiana). As always, you be the judge on whether or not you think this anomalous or easy to explain:

Bright Gold light that came from the South went against the wind and headed south.

It was New Years eve and at the time I had not been drinking.It was very possible that I was going to have to go to work so I stayed sober. It was getting dark and I had seen people setting of fire works around the neighborhood around me.I was watching off and on and had to take my garbage out. I have to walk to a dumpster which is located in the south of my place. As I walked I heard the fireworks around me and out of the due south I saw a bright gold light ascending into the air. At first I though it was a firework but then it started getting bigger and going against the wind.It made no sound whatsoever then realized what I was looking at. I did not have my phone with me so I walked quickly back to my home and was watching this thing the entire time. Now also realize we had overcast skies and this thing stayed blow the clouds. It seemed to pace me as I went to my home. As I went in and grabbed my phone it was now heading due west.I was able to snap two photos and a really bad video from my phone. There is an airport near by but I can tell you this was not a plane,a helicopter,or a firework. It was a bright almost gold color and it was fascinating but a touch frightening. But I watch as long as I could until it disappeared in the distance.