NUFORC Sighting 145760

Occurred: 2019-04-20 20:45 Local
Reported: 2019-04-20 19:19 Pacific
Duration: 15 minutes
No of observers: 2

Location: Troutman, NC, USA

Shape: Formation

Several strange orange lights seen in formation on the sky near Troutman, NC.

April 20th, 2019, around 8:45PM EST, we were driving on Highway 21 towards the city of Troutman, when we witnessed a lot of strange lights hovering towards the north, some 35 degrees above the horizon. At some point, we could see between 15 to 20 distinct lights. It was an incredible sighting.

When we finally found a safe place to park the lights started to disappear and we did not even have a chance to take a decent picture of it. The lights were moving slowly and randomly, mostly hovering below the lowest clouds and some of the lights even seemed to have entered the clouds.

The METAR for the nearby Statesville Airport reported scattered clouds as 3000 feet and broken clouds above 4500. By estimating that the lights were a mere 3000 feet above ground and on a 35 degree above the horizon from us, I estimate them to have been hovering above the Murdock Rd area, between interstate 77 and Barium Springs.

Our position as observers was at 35°41'25"N 80°52'07"W. I am an aviation enthusiast and have a couple dozen hours of flying time as a pilot. I am aware of when I see something out of the ordinary.

Has anybody else seen or taken a picture/video of this?

Posted 2019-04-25