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The Iberian nations are again dealing with the consequences of significant flooding following Tempest Claudia brought heavy rain and powerful gusts the previous week.

Claudia's Origin and Path

The storm system formed from a low-pressure zone that had earlier caused unseasonably early cold and snowy conditions through eastern parts of Canada and the north-eastern United States in early November.

Claudia journeyed east across the Atlantic during the second weekend of November before losing momentum and stopping to the northwestern area of the Spanish and Portuguese landmass, caught in the trough of an ever more meandering jet stream.

Effects in Iberia

Galicia in north-west Spain was initially impacted, with three to six inches of rain falling along its west coast in just a single day up to the evening of Wednesday as a sluggish front of rain pushed across the western sectors of the peninsula.

Additional rainfall and electrical storms on Thursday last week led to floods to Portuguese localities where an elderly couple lost their lives in the capital Lisbon after rising waters from the bursting Tagus River flooded their dwelling as they slept.

Stormy conditions persisted into the weekend, with a twister devastating a camping ground and a adjacent hotel in Albufeira in the south in Portugal's south on the weekend's Saturday, killing an British woman aged 85 and injuring 28 individuals.

Wider Effects across the European continent

Claudia had more extensive impacts across Europe's western part. By drawing warm air from the subtropical zones, the system assisted in raising temperatures in France's south-west to 85.6 degrees Fahrenheit, the country's highest recorded autumn temperature.

By the following Friday, this hot and moist atmospheric body collided with a cold air mass across the northern areas of the continent, generating a band of rain stretching from western Ireland to the Russian Federation.

In the UK, this stationary front of rain delivered very high rainfall totals, causing significant waterlogging in the Welsh region.

As this weather phenomenon loses strength at the start of the week, the frigid air will push south, providing the continent its premier experience of colder weather.

Related Incidents in California

The Golden State experienced a so-called atmospheric river the previous week, bringing torrential rain and powerful winds that provoked rapid flooding and landslides in zones scarred by blazes in the recent past.

Over two inches of rain was recorded in southern California on last Friday, with a further 50mm across extensive areas of California on Saturday last.

More than 100mm of rain accumulated over coastal areas of southern California in all, hitting 200mm overall in locations at higher elevations.

This meteorological feature is a plume of hot, humid air coming from the tropics or subtropics.

Locations with fire damage including the Pacific Palisades area and Altadena experienced the most intense the sudden floods and landslides, prompting evacuations.

In other parts of the state, a elderly male died after his automobile was washed off a flooded bridge, and a young girl aged seven and her dad were dragged into the sea by big swells on the Central Coast.