🔗 Share this article

Once again, Portugal and Spain find themselves dealing with the consequences of widespread flooding following Tempest Claudia brought torrential downpours and powerful gusts over the past seven days.

The Storm's Origin and Path

This weather system originated from a low-pressure zone that had earlier driven unseasonably early chilly and snowy weather through the eastern regions of the Canadian territory and the American north-east during the beginning of the eleventh month.

Claudia moved eastward across the Atlantic during the second weekend of November before slowing and stalling to the northwestern area of the Iberian region, caught in the trough of an progressively more wavy jet stream.

Consequences for the Iberian Peninsula

Spain's Galicia area in the northwest was the first affected, with 80-150mm of rain pouring down along its west coast in just one full day up to Wednesday evening as a leisurely moving system of rain pushed across the western areas of the peninsula.

Further showers and thunderstorms on Thursday led to floods to Portuguese localities where a senior pair lost their lives in Lisbon after water from the overflowing Tagus River flooded their dwelling as they were asleep.

Stormy conditions persisted into the weekend, with a twister ripping through a camping ground and a adjacent hotel in the town of Albufeira in the Algarve region on the weekend's Saturday, fatally injuring an 85-year-old British woman and wounding 28 individuals.

Extended Consequences across the European continent

Claudia had wider effects across the western European nations. By pulling tropical air from the subtropical zones, the system assisted in raising temperatures in France's south-west to 85.6 degrees Fahrenheit, the nation's all-time high November temperature.

By Friday, this warm and humid air mass clashed with a frigid air system across the northern areas of Europe, generating a rainfall belt extending from the west of Ireland to Russia.

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

As the storm progressively weakens early this week, the cold air mass will push south, providing the continent its premier experience of winter.

Simultaneous Occurrences in California

The US state of California encountered a plume of tropical moisture recently, bringing intense precipitation and powerful winds that provoked sudden inundations and mudslides in regions scarred by forest fires earlier this year.

More than 50mm of rain fell in the southern region of the state on last Friday, with a additional two inches widely across the state on Saturday last.

Over four inches of rain accumulated over shoreline regions of the state's south in aggregate, attaining eight inches in total in locations at higher elevations.

An atmospheric river is a plume of hot, humid air stemming from the equatorial or near-equatorial zones.

Burn scar areas including Pacific Palisades and Altadena region endured the most severe the rapid inundations and mudslides, forcing residents to flee.

Elsewhere in California, a 71-year-old man died after his vehicle was washed off a flooded bridge, and a young girl aged seven and her dad were dragged into the ocean by powerful waves on the the state's central shoreline.