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Once again, Portugal and Spain find themselves battling the aftermath of significant inundation following Storm Claudia brought heavy rain and powerful gusts over the past seven days.

The Storm's Formation and Trajectory

This meteorological event formed from a region of depressed atmospheric pressure that had earlier ushered in unseasonably early chilly and snowy weather through the eastern sectors of the Canadian territory and the north-eastern US during the beginning of the eleventh month.

This storm journeyed east across the Atlantic during the second weekend of November before decelerating and halting to the north-west of the Iberian peninsula, trapped within a trough of an progressively more wavy jet stream.

Impact on Spain and Portugal

Galicia in north-west Spain was hit first, with 80-150mm of rain falling along its west coast in just a single day up to Wednesday evening as a leisurely moving system of rain crawled across the western sectors of the Iberian peninsula.

More downpours and stormy weather on Thursday caused inundations to parts of Portugal where an older couple lost their lives in the city of Lisbon after floodwaters from the swollen Tagus flooded their dwelling as they slept.

Stormy conditions continued into the weekend, with a violent whirlwind tearing through a campsite and a nearby hotel in Albufeira in the Algarve region on Saturday, claiming the life of an 85-year-old British woman and injuring 28 individuals.

Extended Consequences across the European continent

This system triggered broader repercussions across the western European nations. By drawing warm air from the subtropics, the system helped temperatures in France's south-west to 85.6 degrees Fahrenheit, the nation's all-time high November temperature.

By the following Friday, this hot and moist atmospheric body met a cold air mass across the northern areas of Europe, generating a precipitation zone extending from western Ireland to Russia.

In the United Kingdom, this stationary front of rain produced exceptionally large precipitation amounts, resulting in severe flooding in the Welsh region.

As the storm continues to weaken early this week, the chilly atmospheric system will push south, providing the continent its premier experience of colder weather.

Parallel Events in California

The US state of California experienced a so-called atmospheric river last week, bringing torrential rain and strong winds that resulted in flash flooding and mudslides in areas affected by blazes in the recent past.

Over two inches of rain fell in southern California on the week's end, with a another 50 millimetres widely across the state on Saturday last.

More than 100mm of rain fell over shoreline regions of southern California in all, reaching a full 200 millimetres in locations at higher elevations.

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

Burn scar areas including Palisades and Altadena suffered the most intense the rapid inundations and mudslides, leading to evacuations.

In other parts of the state, a elderly male passed away after his vehicle was swept off a submerged bridge, and a young girl aged seven and her father were pulled into the sea by big swells on the the state's central shoreline.