Storm Claudia Delivers Additional Flooding to Portugal and the Spanish territory

The Iberian nations are again battling the aftermath of extensive flooding following Tempest Claudia brought torrential downpours and powerful gusts last week.

Claudia's Formation and Trajectory

The storm system formed from an area of low pressure that had previously driven unseasonably early chilly and snowy weather through the eastern sectors of Canada and the north-eastern US at the start of November.

This storm tracked eastwards across the Atlantic Ocean in the middle of the second week of November before losing momentum and stopping to the north-west of the Iberian region, trapped within a trough of an progressively more wavy jet stream.

Impact on Spain and Portugal

Galicia in north-west Spain was initially impacted, with 80-150mm of rain falling along its western coastline in just 24 hours up to Wednesday night as a leisurely moving system of rain pushed across the western areas of the peninsula.

Further showers and thunderstorms on the following Thursday brought flooding to areas in Portugal where an older couple perished in Lisbon after rising waters from the bursting Tagus River entered their home as they rested.

Unsettled atmospheric states persisted into the weekend, with a tornado devastating a camping ground and a close-by inn in the town of Albufeira in southern Portugal on Saturday last week, killing an British woman aged 85 and injuring 28 people.

Extended Consequences across the European continent

This system triggered broader repercussions across western Europe. By drawing warm air from the warmer regions, the system helped temperatures in France's south-west to 29.8C (85.6F), the state's maximum ever late autumn reading.

By last Friday, this tropical air mass met a chilly atmospheric body across more northern parts of the continent, generating a band of rain extending from western Ireland to the Russian Federation.

In the United Kingdom, this stalling band of rain brought exceptionally large precipitation amounts, resulting in significant waterlogging in the Welsh region.

As Claudia progressively weakens early this week, the cold air mass will move towards the south, giving Europe its first taste of winter.

Related Incidents in the state of California

The US state of California underwent a so-called atmospheric river last week, bringing heavy rain and strong winds that provoked sudden inundations and landslides in regions scarred by wildfires previously in the year.

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

Over four inches of rain was deposited on coastal areas of southern California in total, reaching 200mm overall in areas of elevated terrain.

Such a weather system is a narrow band of tropical, saturated air stemming from the tropics or subtropics.

Burn scar areas including the Pacific Palisades area and Altadena experienced the worst of the flash flooding and earth movements, prompting evacuations.

Across California, a 71-year-old man passed away after his vehicle was carried away from a inundated overpass, and a young girl aged seven and her father were pulled into the Pacific by big swells on the the state's central shoreline.