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Portugal and Spain are once more recovering from extensive flooding in the wake of Storm Claudia unleashed torrential downpours and powerful gusts the previous week.

The Storm's Origin and Path

This weather system originated from a region of depressed atmospheric pressure that had beforehand driven early season chilly and snowy weather through eastern parts of Canada and the north-eastern US at the start of November.

This storm tracked eastwards across the Atlantic during the second weekend of November before slowing and stalling to the northwestern area of the Iberian region, snared in a dip of an increasingly amplified atmospheric river.

Effects in Spain and Portugal

Spain's Galicia area in the northwest was initially impacted, with three to six inches of rain falling along its Atlantic coast in just a single day up to Wednesday night as a leisurely moving system of rain crawled across the western areas of the peninsula.

More downpours and stormy weather on Thursday caused inundations to areas in Portugal where an elderly couple perished in Lisbon after water from the overflowing Tagus River entered their home as they slept.

Stormy conditions continued into the weekend, with a twister ripping through a camping ground and a close-by inn in Albufeira in the south in the Algarve region on the weekend's Saturday, fatally injuring an 85-year-old British woman and wounding 28 people.

Extended Consequences across the European continent

This system triggered broader repercussions across the western European nations. By siphoning heated air from the warmer regions, the system helped temperatures in southwestern France to 29.8C (85.6F), the nation's all-time high autumn temperature.

By Friday, this warm and humid air mass met a cold air mass across the northern regions of Europe, creating a precipitation zone running from the west of Ireland to the Russian Federation.

In the United Kingdom, this stalling band of rain produced record-breaking rain accumulations, leading to significant waterlogging in the principality of Wales.

As Claudia continues to weaken early this week, the frigid air will move towards the south, delivering to Europe its premier experience of winter.

Parallel Events in the state of California

The US state of California encountered a so-called atmospheric river last week, delivering intense precipitation and high-velocity gusts that provoked flash flooding and debris flows in zones affected by forest fires previously in the year.

More than 50mm of rain fell in California's southern part on the week's end, with a further 50mm across extensive areas of California on Saturday last.

Over four inches of rain accumulated over shoreline regions of Southern CA in aggregate, reaching eight inches in total in areas of elevated terrain.

This meteorological feature is a plume of warm, moist air stemming from the tropics or subtropics.

Locations with fire damage including the Pacific Palisades area and Altadena region endured the worst of the sudden floods and earth movements, leading to evacuations.

Across California, a elderly male passed away after his automobile was swept off a flooded bridge, and a young girl aged seven and her parent were pulled into the Pacific by powerful waves on the the state's central shoreline.