🔗 Share this article

The Iberian nations are again recovering from significant flooding in the wake of Storm Claudia unleashed heavy rain and strong winds over the past seven days.

The Storm's Genesis and Journey

This weather system developed from a low-pressure zone that had beforehand caused early season chilly and snowy weather through the eastern regions of the Canadian territory and the north-eastern US during the beginning of the eleventh month.

This storm journeyed east across the Atlantic Ocean over the second weekend of November before losing momentum and stopping to the northwestern area of the Spanish and Portuguese landmass, snared in a dip of an ever more meandering atmospheric river.

Effects in the Iberian Peninsula

Spain's Galicia area in the northwest was hit first, with a substantial 80 to 150 millimetres of rain falling along its western coastline in just a single day up to the evening of Wednesday as a sluggish front of rain drifted across western parts of the Iberian peninsula.

Further showers and thunderstorms on the following Thursday led to floods to areas in Portugal where an elderly couple died in the city of Lisbon after floodwaters from the swollen Tagus entered their home as they rested.

Unsettled atmospheric states continued into the weekend, with a violent whirlwind ripping through a outdoor lodging area and a nearby hotel in Albufeira in the Algarve region on the weekend's Saturday, killing an 85-year-old British woman and harming 28 individuals.

Wider Effects across Europe

Claudia had more extensive impacts across Europe's western part. By drawing warm air from the subtropics, the system assisted in raising temperatures in southwestern France to 29.8C (85.6F), the nation's all-time high late autumn reading.

By last Friday, this hot and moist atmospheric body clashed with a cold air mass across the northern regions of the continent, creating a precipitation zone running from western Ireland to the Russian Federation.

In the Britain, this stationary front of rain delivered record-breaking rain accumulations, causing major inundations in the Welsh region.

As Claudia continues to weaken early this week, the chilly atmospheric system will advance southward, delivering to Europe its premier experience of the winter season.

Parallel Events in California, USA

California encountered a plume of tropical moisture recently, causing intense precipitation and powerful winds that resulted in rapid flooding and mudslides in regions affected by wildfires in the recent past.

Over two inches 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.

More than 100mm of rain accumulated over shoreline regions of Southern CA in total, hitting a full 200 millimetres in locations at higher elevations.

An atmospheric river is a concentrated stream of hot, humid air stemming from the equatorial or near-equatorial zones.

Locations with fire damage including Palisades and Altadena endured the most intense the flash flooding and mudslides, leading to evacuations.

Elsewhere in California, a elderly male lost his life after his vehicle was washed off a flooded bridge, and a seven-year-old girl and her dad were pulled into the ocean by big swells on the California's Central Coast.