🔗 Share this article

Once again, Portugal and Spain find themselves battling the aftermath of significant flooding in the wake of Storm Claudia delivered heavy rain and strong winds the previous week.

The Storm's Origin and Path

This weather system originated from a low-pressure zone that had previously caused early season chilly and snowy weather through the eastern regions of Canada and the American north-east during the beginning of the eleventh month.

Claudia journeyed east across the Atlantic during the second weekend of November before decelerating and halting to the northwestern area of the Iberian region, snared in a dip of an ever more meandering jet stream.

Effects in Iberia

Galicia in north-west Spain was hit first, with a substantial 80 to 150 millimetres of rain coming down along its west coast in just 24 hours up to Wednesday evening as a sluggish front of rain crawled across the western sectors of the Iberian peninsula.

Additional rainfall and electrical storms on Thursday led to floods to parts of Portugal where an elderly couple lost their lives in the city of Lisbon after rising waters from the bursting Tagus River entered their home as they rested.

Stormy conditions continued into the weekend, with a tornado ripping through a camping ground and a nearby hotel in the town of Albufeira in Portugal's south on the weekend's Saturday, killing an 85-year-old British woman and wounding 28 individuals.

Wider Effects across the European continent

The storm produced wider effects across western Europe. By pulling tropical air from the warmer regions, the system contributed to thermometers climbing in southwestern France to 29.8C (85.6F), the state's maximum ever late autumn reading.

By last Friday, this warm and humid air mass collided with a cold air mass across more northern parts of the continent, creating a band of rain running from the west of Ireland to the Russian Federation.

In the Britain, this stalling band of rain brought very high rainfall totals, leading to severe flooding in Wales.

As this weather phenomenon continues to weaken early this week, the cold air mass will advance southward, providing the continent its first taste of the winter season.

Parallel Events in the state of California

California experienced an "atmospheric river" the previous week, delivering intense precipitation and powerful winds that provoked flash flooding and debris flows in areas affected by forest fires in the recent past.

More than 50mm of rain fell in southern California on Friday, with a further 50mm across extensive areas of California on the subsequent Saturday.

Over four inches of rain was deposited on coastal parts of Southern CA in aggregate, attaining a full 200 millimetres in areas of elevated terrain.

Such a weather system is a concentrated stream of hot, humid air stemming from the equatorial or near-equatorial zones.

Burn scar areas including Pacific Palisades and the town of Altadena suffered the most intense the rapid inundations and landslides, forcing residents to flee.

Across California, a man in his seventies died after his automobile was carried away from a inundated overpass, and a child of seven years and her dad were swept into the sea by powerful waves on the the state's central shoreline.