Many residents away from the bright lights in New Orleans were treated to an unexpected but spectacular show of Northern Lights Friday night in south Louisiana.

The event was courtesy of a rare but strong electromagnetic storm in the Earth’s atmosphere caused by a dramatic event on the surface of the sun.

Earlier this week, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued a rare “level 4” geomagnetic storm warning. It is the first time it has done so in more than 20 years.

Even so, the effects were not expected as far south as Louisiana though there was a chance.

“I’ll admit when I was wrong,” said WWL Louisiana Chief Meteorologist Chris Franklin Friday night as viewers flooded his social media feeds with dramatic shots of a purplish sky from the northshore, parts of south Mississippi, the river parishes, and Chalmette.

“We were joking about the Northern Lights earlier as every official forecast had the extreme southern extent to about Kentucky. South Louisiana, it wasn’t going to happen.”