🔗 Share this article

The Iberian nations are again recovering from widespread inundation following Storm Claudia delivered heavy rain and strong winds last week.

Claudia's Genesis and Journey

This weather system formed from a low-pressure zone that had beforehand caused early season chilly and snowy weather through eastern parts of Canada and the north-eastern US during the beginning of the eleventh month.

This storm journeyed east across the Atlantic in the middle of the second week of November before losing momentum and stopping to the northwestern area of the Spanish and Portuguese landmass, caught in the trough of an ever more meandering jet stream.

Effects in Spain and Portugal

Spain's Galicia area in the northwest was initially impacted, with three to six inches of rain coming down along its western coastline in just one full day up to the evening of Wednesday as a leisurely moving system of rain pushed across the western sectors of the region.

Further showers and thunderstorms on Thursday brought flooding to parts of Portugal where a senior pair perished in Lisbon after floodwaters from the swollen Tagus flooded their dwelling as they rested.

Tempestuous weather continued into the weekend, with a twister tearing through a camping ground and a nearby hotel in the town of Albufeira in Portugal's south on Saturday last week, fatally injuring an British woman aged 85 and harming two dozen and eight persons.

Wider Effects across Europe

This system triggered wider effects across the western European nations. By drawing warm air from the warmer regions, the system contributed to thermometers climbing in France's south-west to 29.8C (85.6F), the nation's all-time high November temperature.

By last Friday, this warm and humid air mass met a chilly atmospheric body across the northern areas of Europe, generating a band of rain stretching from western Ireland to the Russian Federation.

In the Britain, this stalling band of rain produced very high rainfall totals, causing severe flooding in the Welsh region.

As the storm continues to weaken early this week, the cold air mass will push south, providing the continent its first taste of the winter season.

Related Incidents in California

The Golden State underwent a plume of tropical moisture recently, delivering torrential rain and high-velocity gusts that led to rapid flooding and mudslides in areas impacted by forest fires previously in the year.

In excess of 50 millimetres of rain fell in California's southern part on Friday, with a additional two inches broadly over the state on Saturday.

Over four inches of rain fell over coastal parts of the state's south in aggregate, reaching a full 200 millimetres in locations at higher elevations.

An atmospheric river is a plume of warm, moist air coming from the tropical or subtropical regions.

Regions previously burned including the Pacific Palisades area and Altadena region experienced the most intense the flash flooding and landslides, leading to evacuations.

In other parts of the state, a man in his seventies lost his life after his car was swept off a submerged bridge, and a seven-year-old girl and her father were swept into the ocean by large waves on the California's Central Coast.