🔗 Share this article

Portugal and Spain are once more battling the aftermath of significant inundation after Storm Claudia delivered heavy rain and strong winds over the past seven days.

Claudia's Origin and Path

This weather system developed from a low-pressure zone that had previously ushered in early season cold and snowy conditions through the eastern regions of Canada and the north-eastern United States at the start of November.

The system journeyed east across the Atlantic Ocean over the second weekend of November before slowing and stalling to the north-west of the Iberian region, snared in a dip of an progressively more wavy jet stream.

Effects in Iberia

Galicia in north-west Spain was initially impacted, with a substantial 80 to 150 millimetres of rain pouring down along its Atlantic coast in just one full day up to the evening of Wednesday as a slow-moving band of rain pushed 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 perished in the city of Lisbon after rising waters from the bursting Tagus River entered their home as they were asleep.

Unsettled atmospheric states lasted through the weekend, with a twister devastating a outdoor lodging area and a adjacent hotel in Albufeira in southern Portugal on the weekend's Saturday, fatally injuring an 85-year-old British woman and injuring 28 individuals.

Wider Effects across the European continent

The storm produced more extensive impacts across western Europe. By siphoning heated air from the subtropical zones, the system helped temperatures in France's south-west to nearly 30 degrees Celsius, the country's highest recorded November temperature.

By last Friday, this warm and humid air mass collided with a cold air mass across more northern parts of the continent, generating a precipitation zone stretching from Ireland's west to Russia.

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

As Claudia progressively weakens at the start of the week, the cold air mass will move towards the south, giving Europe its first taste of colder weather.

Related Incidents in California

The Golden State underwent a plume of tropical moisture recently, causing torrential rain and strong winds that resulted in sudden inundations and mudslides in areas scarred 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 broadly over the state on Saturday last.

In excess of 100 millimetres of rain accumulated over coastal areas of southern California in aggregate, attaining eight inches in total in spots on high ground.

Such a weather system is a concentrated stream of hot, humid air coming from the equatorial or near-equatorial zones.

Locations with fire damage including the Pacific Palisades area and the town of Altadena experienced the worst of the sudden floods and mudslides, forcing residents to flee.

Across California, a man in his seventies lost his life after his car was washed off a submerged bridge, and a child of seven years and her parent were dragged into the Pacific by powerful waves on the Central Coast.