🔗 Share this article

The Iberian nations are again battling the aftermath of significant inundation in the wake of Tempest Claudia delivered heavy rain and strong winds the previous week.

Claudia's Genesis and Journey

This weather system developed from a low-pressure zone that had earlier driven early season freezing temperatures and snowfall through eastern parts of Canada and the American north-east in early November.

Claudia moved eastward across the Atlantic Ocean in the middle of the second week of November before slowing and stalling to the north-west of the Iberian peninsula, trapped within a trough of an increasingly amplified air current.

Impact on Spain and Portugal

Spain's Galicia area in the northwest was initially impacted, with 80-150mm of rain pouring down along its west coast in just a single day up to Wednesday evening as a leisurely moving system of rain crawled across the western sectors of the peninsula.

Additional rainfall and electrical storms on Thursday brought flooding to parts of Portugal where an elderly couple lost their lives in Lisbon after water from the overflowing Tagus River invaded their residence as they were asleep.

Tempestuous weather lasted through the weekend, with a twister tearing through a campsite and a nearby hotel in Albufeira in Portugal's south on Saturday, claiming the life of an 85-year-old British woman and injuring 28 people.

Broader Impacts across the European continent

This system triggered broader repercussions across the western European nations. By siphoning heated air from the warmer regions, the system assisted in raising temperatures in south-west France to nearly 30 degrees Celsius, the country's highest recorded autumn temperature.

By last Friday, this hot and moist atmospheric body collided with a chilly atmospheric body across more northern parts of Europe, creating a rainfall belt extending from Ireland's west to the Russian Federation.

In the United Kingdom, this stalling band of rain produced very high rainfall totals, resulting in significant waterlogging in Wales.

As the storm continues to weaken at the start of the week, the cold air mass will push south, giving Europe its initial glimpse of the winter season.

Parallel Events in California, USA

California underwent an "atmospheric river" last week, causing heavy rain and strong winds that led to rapid flooding and debris flows in zones scarred by forest fires earlier this year.

In excess of 50 millimetres of rain poured down in the southern region of the state on the week's end, with a further 50mm across extensive areas of California on the subsequent Saturday.

In excess of 100 millimetres of rain was deposited on coastal areas of the state's south in total, attaining eight inches in total in locations at higher elevations.

Such a weather system is a narrow band of tropical, saturated air originating from the tropical or subtropical regions.

Burn scar areas including the Pacific Palisades area and Altadena region experienced the most severe the sudden floods and landslides, forcing residents to flee.

In other parts of the state, a man in his seventies died after his automobile was carried away from a flooded bridge, and a seven-year-old girl and her father were pulled into the sea by powerful waves on the the state's central shoreline.