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The Iberian nations are again dealing with the consequences of extensive flooding in the wake of Storm Claudia brought torrential downpours and strong winds the previous week.

Claudia's Formation and Trajectory

The storm system developed from an area of low pressure that had beforehand driven early season chilly and snowy weather through the eastern sectors of the Canadian territory and the American north-east in early November.

Claudia journeyed east across the Atlantic Ocean over the second weekend of November before losing momentum and stopping to the north-west of the Iberian peninsula, trapped within a trough of an ever more meandering air current.

Effects in the Iberian Peninsula

The northwestern Spanish region of Galicia was the first affected, with a substantial 80 to 150 millimetres of rain coming down along its Atlantic coast in just one full day up to Wednesday evening as a slow-moving band of rain crawled across the western sectors of the peninsula.

Further showers and thunderstorms on Thursday last week caused inundations to parts of Portugal where an elderly couple lost their lives in the capital Lisbon after floodwaters from the swollen Tagus entered their home as they rested.

Unsettled atmospheric states persisted into the weekend, with a twister tearing through a campsite and a adjacent hotel in the town of Albufeira in Portugal's south on Saturday, fatally injuring an British woman aged 85 and harming two dozen and eight persons.

Wider Effects across the European continent

Claudia had more extensive impacts across western Europe. By pulling tropical air from the subtropics, the system contributed to thermometers climbing in southwestern France to 29.8C (85.6F), the nation's all-time high autumn temperature.

By last Friday, this tropical air mass met a frigid air system across the northern regions of Europe, generating a precipitation zone running from western Ireland to the Russian Federation.

In the United Kingdom, this stationary front of rain produced exceptionally large precipitation amounts, resulting in severe flooding in Wales.

As the storm progressively weakens at the start of the week, the frigid air will move towards the south, providing the continent its first taste of colder weather.

Parallel Events in California, USA

California underwent a plume of tropical moisture recently, causing torrential rain and powerful winds that resulted in sudden inundations and landslides in areas scarred by blazes earlier this year.

More than 50mm of rain was recorded in the southern region of the state on Friday, with a another 50 millimetres across extensive areas of California on the subsequent Saturday.

Over four inches of rain accumulated over coastal parts of Southern CA in aggregate, reaching a full 200 millimetres in locations at higher elevations.

An atmospheric river is a plume of tropical, saturated air originating from the tropical or subtropical regions.

Regions previously burned including the Pacific Palisades area and Altadena region suffered the worst of the sudden floods and mudslides, leading to evacuations.

Across California, a man in his seventies died after his automobile was carried away from a submerged bridge, and a seven-year-old girl and her parent were pulled into the sea by big swells on the Central Coast.