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The Iberian nations are again battling the aftermath of significant flooding following Storm Claudia delivered heavy rain and powerful gusts last week.

Claudia's Formation and Trajectory

The storm system originated from a low-pressure zone that had beforehand driven early season cold and snowy conditions through the eastern regions of the Canadian territory and the north-eastern United States at the start of November.

The system tracked eastwards across the Atlantic Ocean over the second weekend of November before slowing and stalling to the north-west of the Iberian peninsula, snared in a dip of an progressively more wavy atmospheric river.

Impact on the Iberian Peninsula

Galicia in north-west Spain was the first affected, with a substantial 80 to 150 millimetres of rain pouring down along its Atlantic coast in just a single day up to Wednesday evening as a sluggish front of rain drifted across the western sectors of the peninsula.

Further showers and thunderstorms on the following Thursday led to floods to Portuguese localities where an elderly couple died in Lisbon after rising waters from the bursting Tagus River flooded their dwelling as they were asleep.

Unsettled atmospheric states persisted into the weekend, with a violent whirlwind tearing through a camping ground and a nearby hotel in the town of Albufeira in southern Portugal on Saturday, claiming the life of an British woman aged 85 and harming 28 individuals.

Wider Effects across Europe

Claudia had more extensive impacts across the western European nations. By siphoning heated air from the subtropics, the system contributed to thermometers climbing in France's south-west to 29.8C (85.6F), the country's highest recorded November temperature.

By Friday, this hot and moist atmospheric body clashed with a cold air mass across the northern areas of the continent, forming a band of rain stretching from western Ireland to Russia.

In the UK, this stationary front of rain brought record-breaking rain accumulations, causing significant waterlogging in the principality of Wales.

As this weather phenomenon loses strength at the start of the week, the cold air mass will move towards the south, giving Europe its first taste of winter.

Related Incidents in California

The US state of California experienced a plume of tropical moisture last week, causing heavy rain and powerful winds that provoked flash flooding and debris flows in areas affected by blazes in the recent past.

In excess of 50 millimetres of rain poured down in the southern region of the state on the week's end, with a another 50 millimetres broadly over the state on Saturday last.

More than 100mm of rain was deposited on shoreline regions of Southern CA in aggregate, reaching a full 200 millimetres in areas of elevated terrain.

Such a weather system is a plume of warm, moist air coming from the tropical or subtropical regions.

Regions previously burned including Pacific Palisades and Altadena region suffered the worst of the flash flooding and mudslides, forcing residents to flee.

Elsewhere in California, a 71-year-old man died after his vehicle was washed off a inundated overpass, and a child of seven years and her parent were pulled into the ocean by large waves on the California's Central Coast.