🔗 Share this article

Portugal and Spain are once more battling the aftermath of extensive inundation after Storm Claudia brought torrential downpours and powerful gusts last week.

Claudia's Formation and Trajectory

This meteorological event developed from an area of low pressure that had previously driven early season chilly and snowy weather through the eastern regions of Canada and the north-eastern US during the beginning of the eleventh month.

This storm moved eastward across the Atlantic during the second weekend of November before slowing and stalling to the northwestern area of the Iberian region, snared in a dip of an increasingly amplified atmospheric river.

Consequences for the Iberian Peninsula

Galicia in north-west Spain was hit first, with three to six inches of rain coming down along its Atlantic coast in just a single day up to the evening of Wednesday as a leisurely moving system of rain pushed across the western sectors of the region.

More downpours and stormy weather on Thursday last week led to floods to Portuguese localities where a senior pair lost their lives in the city of Lisbon after water from the overflowing Tagus River flooded their dwelling as they slept.

Tempestuous weather lasted through the weekend, with a tornado ripping through a campsite and a adjacent hotel in the town of Albufeira in the Algarve region on Saturday, claiming the life of an 85-year-old British woman and harming two dozen and eight persons.

Broader Impacts across Europe

The storm produced more extensive impacts across western Europe. By siphoning heated air from the subtropical zones, the system helped temperatures in France's south-west to 85.6 degrees Fahrenheit, the state's maximum ever late autumn reading.

By Friday, this hot and moist atmospheric body met a cold air mass across the northern areas of the continent, generating a rainfall belt stretching from Ireland's west to the Russian Federation.

In the UK, this halting system of rain brought exceptionally large precipitation amounts, causing severe flooding in the Welsh region.

As the storm loses strength at the start of the week, the frigid air will advance southward, delivering to Europe its initial glimpse of winter.

Parallel Events in the state of California

California experienced a plume of tropical moisture last week, delivering heavy rain and powerful winds that resulted in flash flooding and landslides in regions impacted by forest fires earlier this year.

Over two inches of rain fell in southern California on Friday, with a additional two inches broadly over the state on Saturday last.

More than 100mm of rain accumulated over coastal parts of southern California in total, hitting eight inches in total in areas of elevated terrain.

Such a weather system is a narrow band of warm, moist air originating from the equatorial or near-equatorial zones.

Locations with fire damage including the Pacific Palisades area and the town of Altadena suffered the worst of the rapid inundations and mudslides, prompting evacuations.

Elsewhere in California, a 71-year-old man passed away after his automobile was carried away from a inundated overpass, and a seven-year-old girl and her dad were dragged into the Pacific by big swells on the the state's central shoreline.