A severe Christmas Day storm raked northern Scotland to western Norway, unleashing winds as intense as many hurricanes.

Winds at Sella Ness, Shetland, north of Scotland, reached 101 mph in gusts, BBC News said on Monday. Winds also topped 100 mph over the Cairngorms, in the Scottish Highlands.

Sustained hurricane winds also lashed island lighthouses off the western Norway coast, north of Bergen.

Still more powerful were winds clocked on oil rigs west of Norway, where winds were about as strong as those of a Category 3 hurricane.

Meteorological data accessed by AccuWeather.com showed sustained winds to at least 91 knots, or 105 mph, on the Statfjord A oil rig, northeast of Shetland. Gusts exceeded 115 mph. A sustained wind of 111 mph would yield Category 3 status.

An exceptionally powerful storm tracking across Iceland and the Norwegian Sea on Christmas Day whipped up the high winds.

Record U.K. warmth on Christmas Day was an offshoot of the storm, which strong southwesterly wind flow drew in mild air from the open Atlantic Ocean.

Overall, the U.K. had its third warmest Christmas Day in the modern record, according to the BBC. What is more, it was the mildest Christmas Day on record for Northern Ireland, which had 14.3 degrees C (57.7 F) reached at County Down.