Despite the strength of its gusts, the storm was not considered a hurricane because it didn't form over warm expanses of open ocean like the hurricanes that batter the Caribbean and the United States.
Britain's national weather service, the Met Office, said Britain does not get hurricanes because those are "warm latitude" storms that draw their energy from seas far warmer than the North Atlantic. Monday's storm also did not have an "eye" at its center like most hurricanes.
London's Heathrow Airport, Europe's busiest, cancelled at least 130 flights and giant waves prompted the major English port of Dover to close, cutting off ferry services to France.
Nearly 1,100 passengers had to ride out the storm on a heaving ferry from Newcastle in Britain to the Dutch port of Ijmuiden after strong winds and heavy seas blocked it from docking in the morning. The ship returned to the North Sea to wait for the wind to die down rather than risk being smashed against the harbor's walls, Teun-Wim Leene of DFDS Seaways told national broadcaster NOS.
In central London, a huge building crane near the prime minister's office crumpled in the gusts. The city's overburdened transit system faced major delays and cancellations and did not recover even once the weather swept to the east.
