Three Dead, Hundreds of Thousands Lose Power as Post-Tropical Cyclone Ophelia Blasts Ireland, United Kingdom With High Winds

Post-Tropical Cyclone Ophelia hammered portions of Ireland and the western United Kingdom with damaging winds Monday, downing trees, knocking out power to thousands and killing at least three people.

Wind gusts topped 70 mph in several locations, including one gust to 119 mph on Fastnet Island off the southern coast of Ireland.

Here's a look at some of the top wind gust reports:

• Fastnet Island, Ireland: 119 mph
• Roches Point, Ireland: 97 mph
• Aberdaron, Wales: 86 mph
• Waterford, Ireland: 85 mph
• Sherkin Island, Ireland: 84 mph
• Capel Curig, Wales: 82 mph
• RAF Valley, Wales: 79 mph
• Cork, Ireland: 78 mph
• Shannon, Ireland: 76 mph
• West Freugh, Scotland: 71 mph
• St. Mary's Island, United Kingdom: 70 mph
• Oak Park, Ireland: 69 mph
• Dublin, Ireland: 65 mph
• Malin Head, Ireland: 65 mph
• High Bradfield, England: 64 mph
• Loftus, England: 64 mph
• Gurteen, Ireland: 63 mph
• Pembry, United Kingdom: 60 mph

At least three people have died in the storm, according to the Associated Press. One person was killed Monday morning after a tree fell onto a car in County Waterford, according to RTE.

In addition to downed trees in Ireland, some roofs have been damaged or blown off.

Ophelia also brought large waves and very high tides to parts of the Ireland coast Monday.

The Irish Times said at least 360,000 ESB Networks customers lost power in Ireland because of the storm.

All schools across Ireland were closed for the second day in a row Tuesday, the BBC reported. 

Several flights to British airports have been diverted due to unusual odors on board, which were thought to be associated with Ophelia, the Associated Press reported. The storm pulled in warm tropical air and dust from the Sahara Desert.

In the United Kingdom, Saharan dust and wildfire smoke from Portugal and Spain that was drawn northward by Ophelia produced a surreal orange sky Monday. 

Ophelia struck Ireland and the United Kingdom as a post-tropical cyclone after the former hurricane lost its tropical characteristics in the northeast Atlantic Ocean late Sunday.

Hurricane Recap: Farthest East Major Hurricane on Record

Before Ophelia's post-tropical cyclone hammered Ireland and the U.K., Hurricane Ophelia made history.

Ophelia became the farthest east Category 3 hurricane on record for the Atlantic Basin on October 14. The previous record was Hurricane Frances in 1980.

Ophelia was also the sixth major hurricane of the 2017 Atlantic hurricane season, tying for the most major hurricanes through Oct. 14 with 1933, 1961, 1964 and 2004, according to Dr. Phil Klotzbach, Colorado State University tropical meteorologist.

Ophelia was also the 10th consecutive Atlantic named storm to become a hurricane in 2017.

That tied the record for the most consecutive Atlantic named storms reaching hurricane strength, which also happened in three other years: 1878, 1886 and 1893, according to Dr. Phil Klotzbach.

There are a couple of caveats to this record, however.

"Lee could easily be counted as two storms," tweeted Brenden Moses, a University of Miami hurricane researcher specializing in the historical hurricane database.

After briefly becoming a tropical storm, Lee degenerated into a remnant low on Sept. 18 about halfway between West Africa and the Lesser Antilles. Four days later, Lee sprung back to life as a tropical cyclone and eventually strengthened to a Category 3 hurricane on Sept. 27.

Moses later tweeted that if separated, there would be a tropical storm, then a separate hurricane, which would make the 10-straight-hurricane record invalid. This type of post-analysis occurs after every hurricane season, sometimes leading to the addition of previously unnamed storms or tweaking of tropical cyclone intensities.

The other disclaimer about tropical cyclones before satellites were routinely used to examine the entire tropical Atlantic Basin in 1966 is that some tropical storms – even hurricanes – may have been missed that could have influenced any streaks, especially in the 19th century.