🔗 Share this article

Portugal and Spain are once more battling the aftermath of extensive flooding following Storm Claudia brought heavy rain and powerful gusts the previous week.

Claudia's Genesis and Journey

The storm system originated from an area of low pressure that had beforehand caused unseasonably early freezing temperatures and snowfall through eastern parts of Canada and the American north-east in early November.

The system moved eastward across the Atlantic Ocean over the second weekend of November before decelerating and halting to the northwestern area of the Iberian peninsula, snared in a dip of an increasingly amplified atmospheric river.

Effects in Spain and Portugal

Spain's Galicia area in the northwest was initially impacted, with 80-150mm of rain pouring down along its Atlantic coast in just a single day up to Wednesday evening as a slow-moving band of rain drifted across the western areas of the region.

Further showers and thunderstorms on Thursday last week brought flooding to Portuguese localities where a senior pair died in the city of Lisbon after water from the overflowing Tagus River entered their home as they were asleep.

Stormy conditions persisted into the weekend, with a violent whirlwind ripping through a outdoor lodging area and a adjacent hotel in Albufeira in the south in the Algarve region on the weekend's Saturday, killing an 85-year-old British woman and harming 28 individuals.

Extended Consequences across the European continent

This system triggered more extensive impacts across Europe's western part. By pulling tropical air from the subtropical zones, the system helped temperatures in southwestern France to 85.6 degrees Fahrenheit, the country's highest recorded November temperature.

By the following Friday, this hot and moist atmospheric body clashed with a frigid air system across more northern parts of Europe, forming a rainfall belt running from Ireland's west to the Russian Federation.

In the United Kingdom, this stalling band of rain delivered very high rainfall totals, leading to major inundations in the principality of Wales.

As Claudia loses strength early this week, the chilly atmospheric system will move towards the south, giving Europe its first taste of winter.

Simultaneous Occurrences in California, USA

The US state of California encountered a plume of tropical moisture the previous week, delivering intense precipitation and powerful winds that resulted in flash flooding and mudslides in zones affected by blazes earlier this year.

In excess of 50 millimetres of rain fell in southern California on last Friday, with a further 50mm across extensive areas of California on Saturday last.

Over four inches of rain accumulated over shoreline regions of Southern CA in aggregate, attaining a full 200 millimetres in areas of elevated terrain.

This meteorological feature is a narrow band of tropical, saturated air coming from the equatorial or near-equatorial zones.

Regions previously burned including Pacific Palisades and Altadena endured the worst of the rapid inundations and earth movements, prompting evacuations.

Elsewhere in California, a elderly male passed away after his vehicle was carried away from a inundated overpass, and a seven-year-old girl and her father were swept into the Pacific by powerful waves on the Central Coast.