Levelland is a city in Hockley County, Texas, in the United States. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 12,866. It is the county seat of Hockley County. It is located on the Llano Estacado, west of Lubbock. Major industries include cotton farming and petroleum production. It is the home of South Plains College. Levelland is the principal city of the Levelland Micropolitan Statistical Area, which includes all of Hockley County and part of the larger Lubbock-Levelland Combined Statistical Area. Levelland is famous as the site of a well-publicized series of UFO sightings in November 1957. Several motorists driving on various highways around Levelland claimed to see a large, egg-shaped object which emitted a blue glow and caused their automobiles to shut off. In most cases the object was sitting either on the highway or close to it. When the object took off, the vehicles would restart and work normally. Among witnesses were Weir Clem, Levelland's sheriff, and Ray Jones, the town's fire chief. The United States Air Force concluded a severe electrical storm was the major cause for the sightings and reported auto failures. However, several prominent UFO researchers, among them Dr. James E. McDonald, a physicist at the University of Arizona, and Dr. J. Allen Hynek, an astronomer at Northwestern University, disputed this explanation. Both men argued that there was no electrical storm in the area when the sightings occurred.