Tempest Claudia Brings Additional Flooding to the Portuguese nation and the Spanish territory

The Iberian nations are again battling the aftermath of significant inundation following Tempest Claudia brought heavy rain and strong winds last week.

Claudia's Genesis and Journey

The storm system formed from a low-pressure zone that had earlier driven early season freezing temperatures and snowfall through the eastern regions of the Canadian territory and the north-eastern US at the start of November.

This storm journeyed east across the Atlantic during the second weekend of November before losing momentum and stopping to the north-west of the Iberian peninsula, trapped within a trough of an progressively more wavy atmospheric river.

Effects in the Iberian Peninsula

Spain's Galicia area in the northwest was hit first, with a substantial 80 to 150 millimetres of rain coming down along its Atlantic coast in just a single day up to Wednesday evening as a sluggish front of rain crawled across western parts of the region.

Additional rainfall and electrical storms on the following Thursday caused inundations to parts of Portugal where an older couple perished in the city of Lisbon after rising waters from the bursting Tagus River invaded their residence as they slept.

Stormy conditions continued into the weekend, with a tornado devastating a campsite and a nearby hotel in Albufeira in the south in southern Portugal on Saturday last week, killing an British woman aged 85 and wounding two dozen and eight persons.

Broader Impacts across Europe

The storm produced broader repercussions across western Europe. By siphoning heated air from the subtropical zones, the system contributed to thermometers climbing in south-west France to 85.6 degrees Fahrenheit, the nation's all-time high late autumn reading.

By Friday, this tropical air mass met a cold air mass across the northern regions of the continent, creating a precipitation zone running from the west of Ireland to Russia.

In the United Kingdom, this stationary front of rain produced very high rainfall totals, causing major inundations in the Welsh region.

As Claudia progressively weakens in the coming days, the frigid air will advance southward, providing the continent its premier experience of winter.

Simultaneous Occurrences in California, USA

The US state of California experienced an "atmospheric river" last week, bringing heavy rain and strong winds that provoked sudden inundations and landslides in areas affected by blazes earlier this year.

Over two inches of rain fell in California's southern part on Friday, with a further 50mm broadly over the state on Saturday.

In excess of 100 millimetres of rain fell over shoreline regions of southern California in all, reaching a full 200 millimetres in locations at higher elevations.

Such a weather system is a concentrated stream of hot, humid air stemming from the tropics or subtropics.

Locations with fire damage including Palisades and Altadena region experienced the most intense the rapid inundations and earth movements, leading to evacuations.

Across California, a 71-year-old man died after his vehicle was washed off a inundated overpass, and a seven-year-old girl and her father were pulled into the sea by large waves on the Central Coast.