🔗 Share this article

The Iberian nations are again recovering from significant flooding after Tempest Claudia brought heavy rain and powerful gusts last week.

Claudia's Origin and Path

This meteorological event developed from a region of depressed atmospheric pressure that had earlier driven early season freezing temperatures and snowfall through the eastern sectors of the Canadian territory and the north-eastern United States during the beginning of the eleventh month.

This storm journeyed east across the Atlantic over the second weekend of November before decelerating and halting to the northwestern area of the Iberian peninsula, trapped within a trough of an ever more meandering air current.

Effects in Spain and Portugal

Galicia in north-west Spain was hit first, with 80-150mm of rain pouring down along its western coastline in just one full day up to the evening of Wednesday as a slow-moving band of rain crawled across western parts of the peninsula.

Further showers and thunderstorms on Thursday last week led to floods to Portuguese localities where an older couple lost their lives in the city of Lisbon after floodwaters from the swollen Tagus flooded their dwelling as they rested.

Unsettled atmospheric states lasted through the weekend, with a twister ripping through a outdoor lodging area and a nearby hotel in the town of Albufeira in the Algarve region on Saturday, fatally injuring an 85-year-old British woman and wounding 28 people.

Broader Impacts across Europe

The storm produced wider effects across western Europe. By drawing warm air from the warmer regions, the system contributed to thermometers climbing in south-west France to 85.6 degrees Fahrenheit, the nation's all-time high late autumn reading.

By the following Friday, this warm and humid air mass met a cold air mass across the northern areas of Europe, creating a precipitation zone extending from western Ireland to the Russian Federation.

In the Britain, this stationary front of rain produced record-breaking rain accumulations, leading to significant waterlogging in the Welsh region.

As this weather phenomenon progressively weakens at the start of the week, the cold air mass will advance southward, delivering to Europe its first taste of the winter season.

Parallel Events in California

The Golden State experienced a plume of tropical moisture the previous week, delivering heavy rain and high-velocity gusts that provoked flash flooding and landslides in regions scarred by wildfires previously in the year.

More than 50mm of rain fell in southern California on last Friday, with a another 50 millimetres widely across the state on the subsequent Saturday.

In excess of 100 millimetres of rain fell over shoreline regions of the state's south in total, hitting eight inches in total in spots on high ground.

This meteorological feature is a concentrated stream of warm, moist air originating from the tropics or subtropics.

Regions previously burned including the Pacific Palisades area and the town of Altadena endured the worst of the rapid inundations and mudslides, leading to evacuations.

Elsewhere in California, a 71-year-old man lost his life after his vehicle was swept off a inundated overpass, and a seven-year-old girl and her dad were pulled into the Pacific by large waves on the Central Coast.