 The next day , Ellen intensified into a hurricane before taking a sharp turn to the north @-@ northwest in response to a weak trough moving northeast from the Bahamas . Gradually , the hurricane turned more towards the northeast and began to accelerate as well as intensify . Despite being at an unusually high latitude for development , the storm underwent a brief period of rapid intensification , strengthening into a Category 3 hurricane on September 23 . At that time , Ellen attained its peak intensity with winds of 115 mph ( 185 km / h ) and a minimum pressure of <unk> mbar ( hPa ; 28 @.@ 41 inHg ) . Upon attaining this intensity at 42 @.@ 1 ° N , Ellen had become a major hurricane farther north than any other tropical cyclone on record , and is one of two storms to become a major hurricane north of 38 ° N , the other being Hurricane Alex in 2004 . Shortly after peaking , Ellen transitioned into an extratropical cyclone before merging with a frontal system several hundred miles east of Newfoundland on September 23 . 
