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The Iberian nations are again recovering from widespread flooding following Tempest Claudia delivered torrential downpours and strong winds last week.

Claudia's Origin and Path

This weather system developed from an area of low pressure that had earlier caused early season freezing temperatures and snowfall through the eastern sectors of the Canadian territory and the north-eastern US during the beginning of the eleventh month.

The system moved eastward across the Atlantic in the middle of the second week of November before decelerating and halting to the northwestern area of the Iberian region, trapped within a trough of an ever more meandering air current.

Impact on Spain and Portugal

The northwestern Spanish region of Galicia was hit first, with a substantial 80 to 150 millimetres of rain falling along its Atlantic coast in just one full day up to Wednesday evening as a slow-moving band of rain crawled across western parts 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 invaded their residence as they were asleep.

Tempestuous weather lasted through the weekend, with a twister devastating a campsite and a nearby hotel in the town of Albufeira in Portugal's south on Saturday, fatally injuring an elderly British lady and wounding 28 people.

Extended Consequences across the European continent

The storm produced broader repercussions across the western European nations. By siphoning heated air from the subtropical zones, the system helped temperatures in France's south-west to 29.8C (85.6F), the state's maximum ever late autumn reading.

By last Friday, this warm and humid air mass collided with a chilly atmospheric body across more northern parts of Europe, forming a precipitation zone extending from western Ireland to the Russian Federation.

In the Britain, this halting system of rain delivered very high rainfall totals, resulting in severe flooding in the Welsh region.

As the storm loses strength in the coming days, the frigid air will advance southward, providing the continent its first taste of colder weather.

Parallel Events in California, USA

The US state of California underwent a so-called atmospheric river last week, causing torrential rain and strong winds that provoked sudden inundations and landslides in regions scarred by blazes previously in the year.

Over two inches of rain fell in southern California on the week's end, with a additional two inches broadly over the state on Saturday.

Over four inches of rain fell over coastal areas of Southern CA in total, hitting 200mm overall in spots on high ground.

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

Regions previously burned including Pacific Palisades and Altadena suffered the most intense the sudden floods and earth movements, leading to evacuations.

Elsewhere in California, a elderly male passed away after his automobile was swept off a inundated overpass, and a seven-year-old girl and her parent were swept into the sea by large waves on the the state's central shoreline.