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Once again, Portugal and Spain find themselves recovering from extensive flooding after Tempest Claudia brought torrential downpours and strong winds last week.

Claudia's Origin and Path

The storm system originated from a low-pressure zone that had beforehand driven early season chilly and snowy weather through eastern parts of the Canadian territory and the north-eastern US in early November.

This storm journeyed east across the Atlantic in the middle of the second week of November before decelerating and halting to the northwestern area of the Iberian region, trapped within a trough of an increasingly amplified jet stream.

Effects in Iberia

Spain's Galicia area in the northwest was initially impacted, with 80-150mm of rain falling 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 Iberian peninsula.

Further showers and thunderstorms on the following Thursday led to floods to Portuguese localities where an older couple died in Lisbon after floodwaters from the swollen Tagus invaded their residence as they were asleep.

Stormy conditions continued into the weekend, with a violent whirlwind ripping through a outdoor lodging area and a adjacent hotel in the town of Albufeira in Portugal's south on the weekend's Saturday, claiming the life of an 85-year-old British woman and injuring 28 people.

Wider Effects across Europe

This system triggered more extensive impacts across Europe's western part. By siphoning heated air from the subtropics, the system assisted in raising temperatures in France's south-west to 29.8C (85.6F), the country's highest recorded autumn temperature.

By Friday, this hot and moist atmospheric body met a frigid air system across the northern areas of Europe, forming a rainfall belt running from western Ireland to the Russian Federation.

In the United Kingdom, this halting system of rain produced very high rainfall totals, leading to severe flooding in the principality of Wales.

As Claudia progressively weakens early this week, the cold air mass will push south, giving Europe its premier experience of colder weather.

Related Incidents in California

The Golden State experienced a plume of tropical moisture last week, delivering heavy rain and high-velocity gusts that led to flash flooding and debris flows in areas scarred by forest fires in the recent past.

In excess of 50 millimetres of rain fell in California's southern part on the week's end, with a additional two inches broadly over the state on Saturday last.

Over four inches of rain accumulated over coastal parts of the state's south in aggregate, attaining 200mm overall in spots on high ground.

An atmospheric river is a narrow band of warm, moist air coming from the tropics or subtropics.

Regions previously burned including the Pacific Palisades area and Altadena region suffered the most severe the sudden floods and mudslides, forcing residents to flee.

Elsewhere in California, a 71-year-old man died after his car was washed off a inundated overpass, and a seven-year-old girl and her dad were swept into the ocean by big swells on the California's Central Coast.