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The Iberian nations are again recovering from extensive flooding after Storm Claudia unleashed heavy rain and powerful gusts last week.

Claudia's Formation and Trajectory

This meteorological event originated from a region of depressed atmospheric pressure that had previously driven unseasonably early chilly and snowy weather through eastern parts of Canada and the American north-east at the start of November.

The system journeyed east across the Atlantic over the second weekend of November before losing momentum and stopping to the northwestern area of the Iberian peninsula, snared in a dip of an increasingly amplified air current.

Effects in Iberia

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 24 hours up to Wednesday night as a sluggish front of rain drifted across western parts of the region.

Further showers and thunderstorms on the following Thursday caused inundations to parts of Portugal where a senior pair lost their lives in the capital Lisbon after rising waters from the bursting Tagus River entered their home as they rested.

Stormy conditions persisted into the weekend, with a twister ripping through a outdoor lodging area and a adjacent hotel in Albufeira in Portugal's south on the weekend's Saturday, fatally injuring an British woman aged 85 and harming 28 people.

Extended Consequences across the European continent

This system triggered broader repercussions across the western European nations. By drawing warm air from the subtropical zones, the system assisted in raising temperatures in southwestern France to nearly 30 degrees Celsius, the nation's all-time high November temperature.

By last Friday, this warm and humid air mass clashed with a cold air mass across the northern areas of Europe, generating a rainfall belt stretching from western Ireland to Russia.

In the Britain, this stationary front of rain produced exceptionally large precipitation amounts, resulting in severe flooding in Wales.

As Claudia progressively weakens at the start of the week, the chilly atmospheric system will advance southward, delivering to Europe its first taste of the winter season.

Related Incidents in California

California encountered a so-called atmospheric river the previous week, bringing intense precipitation and high-velocity gusts that resulted in flash flooding and landslides in zones scarred by forest fires in the recent past.

More than 50mm of rain was recorded in the southern region of the state on Friday, with a further 50mm broadly over the state on the subsequent Saturday.

More than 100mm of rain accumulated over shoreline regions of the state's south in all, reaching eight inches in total in spots on high ground.

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

Regions previously burned including Palisades and Altadena endured the most severe the rapid inundations and earth movements, leading to evacuations.

In other parts of the state, a 71-year-old man passed away after his car was swept off a submerged bridge, and a child of seven years and her dad were swept into the sea by big swells on the Central Coast.