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Portugal and Spain are once more recovering from extensive inundation following Storm Claudia brought torrential downpours and powerful gusts last week.

Claudia's Origin and Path

This weather system formed from a region of depressed atmospheric pressure that had previously ushered in early season chilly and snowy weather through eastern parts of the Canadian territory and the north-eastern United States at the start of November.

This storm tracked eastwards across the Atlantic in the middle of the second week of November before losing momentum and stopping to the north-west of the Spanish and Portuguese landmass, snared in a dip of an progressively more wavy jet stream.

Impact on Spain and Portugal

Spain's Galicia area in the northwest was the first affected, with 80-150mm of rain coming down along its west coast in just 24 hours up to Wednesday evening as a slow-moving band of rain crawled across the western areas of the Iberian peninsula.

More downpours and stormy weather on Thursday led to floods to parts of Portugal where an older couple lost their lives in the capital Lisbon after rising waters from the bursting Tagus River entered their home as they slept.

Unsettled atmospheric states lasted through the weekend, with a tornado ripping through a outdoor lodging area and a adjacent hotel in Albufeira in the south in southern Portugal on Saturday last week, killing an elderly British lady and wounding two dozen and eight persons.

Extended Consequences across Europe

The storm produced wider effects across Europe's western part. By siphoning heated air from the subtropical zones, the system assisted in raising temperatures in south-west France to 29.8C (85.6F), the state's maximum ever November temperature.

By last Friday, this hot and moist atmospheric body clashed with a cold air mass across the northern regions of Europe, forming a rainfall belt running from western Ireland to the Russian Federation.

In the Britain, this stationary front of rain produced very high rainfall totals, causing major inundations in the Welsh region.

As the storm loses strength early this week, the chilly atmospheric system will move towards the south, giving Europe its premier experience of winter.

Simultaneous Occurrences in California, USA

California underwent a so-called atmospheric river the previous week, causing intense precipitation and high-velocity gusts that provoked sudden inundations and landslides in zones scarred by forest fires in the recent past.

More than 50mm of rain fell in the southern region of the state on Friday, with a further 50mm across extensive areas of California on the subsequent Saturday.

Over four inches of rain fell over shoreline regions of southern California in total, hitting 200mm overall in locations at higher elevations.

Such a weather system is a plume of hot, humid air originating from the tropical or subtropical regions.

Burn scar areas including Palisades and Altadena region suffered the most severe the rapid inundations and landslides, forcing residents to flee.

Elsewhere in California, a elderly male died after his vehicle was carried away from a submerged bridge, and a child of seven years and her father were dragged into the ocean by big swells on the California's Central Coast.