The combination of the absorption of a second low-pressure area to its southeast, a stronger than normal sea surface temperature differential along its path, and the presence of a strong jet stream aloft led to a rapid strengthening of the storm, with its central pressure falling to an estimated 914 hPa (914.0 mb; 26.99 inHg) on 10 January.

A weak frontal wave, a low-pressure system forming along a weather front with very strong temperature contrast, developed on the afternoon of 8 January to the southeast of Newfoundland with a central pressure of 1,008 hPa (29.8 inHg).

As the storm tracked more northeasterly, development accelerated, and early on the morning of 9 January its central pressure had fallen to 988 hPa (29.2 inHg).

By noon, the forward motion of the main cyclone accelerated to nearly 150 km/h (93 mph) and its central pressure began to bomb, then down to 974 hPa (28.76 inHg) as it passed through the far northern Atlantic.

This strengthening was enhanced by a strong jet stream with measured winds of 440 km/h (270 mph),[1] and a stronger than normal sea surface temperature gradient along its path from the Grand Banks of Newfoundland towards Iceland.

By early morning of 10 January, the pressure at the strong cyclone's center had fallen to 926 hPa (27.34 inHg) northwest of Great Britain as it slowed its northeast motion.

This caused an extensive area of gale-force winds which stretched from Newfoundland to Spain, and northeastwards between Greenland and northern Norway.

[1] The sign of the North Atlantic oscillation switched from positive to weakly negative during the lifetime of this storm,[4] which caused colder conditions to prevail in the Eastern United States and Western Europe by the time the system was dissipating.

The tanker broke up and her remaining cargo of 84,500 tons of light crude oil spilled into the ocean surrounding the islands.

The most intense was an extratropical cyclone in October 2022, which a paper published by Geophysical Research Letters estimated to have reached a pressure of 899.91 hPa (26.574 inHg).