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Portugal and Spain are once more dealing with the consequences of significant inundation following Tempest Claudia brought torrential downpours and powerful gusts the previous week.

Claudia's Origin and Path

This weather system developed from an area of low pressure that had beforehand ushered in unseasonably early cold and snowy conditions through the eastern regions of the Canadian territory and the north-eastern United States in early November.

This storm moved eastward across the Atlantic Ocean in the middle of the second week of November before decelerating and halting to the north-west of the Spanish and Portuguese landmass, snared in a dip of an ever more meandering jet stream.

Impact on Iberia

Galicia in north-west Spain was hit first, with a substantial 80 to 150 millimetres of rain coming down along its western coastline in just one full day up to Wednesday evening as a sluggish front of rain drifted across the western areas of the peninsula.

Additional rainfall and electrical storms on the following Thursday brought flooding to Portuguese localities where a senior pair died in the capital Lisbon after floodwaters from the swollen Tagus invaded their residence as they were asleep.

Stormy conditions continued into the weekend, with a tornado ripping through a outdoor lodging area and a adjacent hotel in the town of Albufeira in Portugal's south on Saturday last week, fatally injuring an British woman aged 85 and wounding 28 people.

Wider Effects across Europe

Claudia had broader repercussions across Europe's western part. By siphoning heated air from the subtropics, the system helped temperatures in south-west France to 85.6 degrees Fahrenheit, the country's highest recorded late autumn reading.

By the following Friday, this hot and moist atmospheric body met a cold air mass across the northern areas of Europe, creating a precipitation zone extending from western Ireland to Russia.

In the UK, this stalling band of rain brought exceptionally large precipitation amounts, resulting in severe flooding in the Welsh region.

As Claudia loses strength in the coming days, the cold air mass will push south, giving Europe its first taste of winter.

Parallel Events in the state of California

The US state of California experienced a plume of tropical moisture recently, causing heavy rain and strong winds that led to sudden inundations and debris flows in areas affected by forest fires in the recent past.

More than 50mm of rain poured down in southern California on the week's end, with a further 50mm widely across the state on Saturday.

Over four inches of rain fell over coastal parts of Southern CA in total, attaining eight inches in total in spots on high ground.

Such a weather system is a plume of warm, moist air originating from the tropical or subtropical regions.

Regions previously burned including Pacific Palisades and Altadena suffered the most intense the sudden floods and earth movements, forcing residents to flee.

Across California, a elderly male lost his life after his car was carried away from a flooded bridge, and a young girl aged seven and her parent were dragged into the Pacific by powerful waves on the Central Coast.