The hurricane accelerated to the northeast, under the influence of the large mid-latitude trough. Ophelia weakened slightly later that day. The cloud tops warmed due to moderate vertical wind shear, but wind shear decreased shortly afterwards, allowed Ophelia to strengthen once again. Its eye became better defined, and the NHC upgraded Ophelia to a Category 3 hurricane at 12:00 UTC on 14 October; at 27.7°W, this was the farthest east that a storm of such intensity had been observed in the satellite era. It attained its peak intensity simultaneously with maximum sustained winds of 115 mph (185 km/h) and a central pressure of 959 mb (hPa; 28.32 inHg) while located approximately southwest of the Azores. Early on 15 October, increasing wind shear and cold waters of caused Ophelia to gradually weaken. Embedded within a fast southwesterly flow, Ophelia raced to the north-northeast with a speed of . After losing all of its deep convection and becoming attached to a warm front and a cold front, the storm became extratropical at 00:00 UTC on the next day, about southwest of Mizen Head. The extratropical low then made landfall in southwestern Ireland, near Valentia Island, with winds of 75 mph (120 km/h), at 11:00 UTC. Afterwards, Ophelia's extratropical remnants tracked over Ireland and made its second landfall in Soay, Inner Hebrides with winds of 60 mph (95 km/h), at 23:45 UTC. On 17 October, the extratropical low turned to the east-northeast, and tracked over the North Sea. The storm made its third and final landfall in Våge, Austevoll, with winds of 45 mph (75 km/h), at 17:30 UTC, before dissipating over Norway early on 18 October.