Tempest Claudia Brings More Flooding to Portugal and the Spanish territory
Once again, Portugal and Spain find themselves battling the aftermath of significant inundation following Storm Claudia delivered torrential downpours and powerful gusts the previous week.
Claudia's Genesis and Journey
This meteorological event developed from a region of depressed atmospheric pressure that had beforehand ushered in early season freezing temperatures and snowfall through eastern parts of Canada and the north-eastern United States at the start of November.
The system journeyed east across the Atlantic Ocean over the second weekend of November before slowing and stalling to the north-west of the Iberian region, snared in a dip of an progressively more wavy jet stream.
Impact on the Iberian Peninsula
Galicia in north-west Spain was initially impacted, with a substantial 80 to 150 millimetres of rain coming down along its west coast in just a single day up to Wednesday night as a sluggish front of rain pushed across the western areas of the peninsula.
Further showers and thunderstorms on Thursday last week brought flooding to Portuguese localities where an elderly couple perished in the city of Lisbon after floodwaters from the swollen Tagus flooded their dwelling as they rested.
Unsettled atmospheric states persisted into the weekend, with a violent whirlwind tearing through a outdoor lodging area and a close-by inn in Albufeira in the Algarve region on Saturday, fatally injuring an elderly British lady and wounding 28 people.
Broader Impacts across the European continent
The storm produced broader repercussions across western Europe. By drawing warm air from the subtropics, the system helped temperatures in south-west France to 85.6 degrees Fahrenheit, the country's highest recorded late autumn reading.
By last Friday, this warm and humid air mass met a chilly atmospheric body across more northern parts of Europe, creating a precipitation zone running from Ireland's west to Russia.
In the Britain, this stationary front of rain brought very high rainfall totals, resulting in major inundations in the principality of Wales.
As this weather phenomenon loses strength in the coming days, the chilly atmospheric system will push south, providing the continent its first taste of winter.
Related Incidents in the state of California
The US state of California experienced an "atmospheric river" last week, delivering torrential rain and high-velocity gusts that led to flash flooding and debris flows in areas scarred by wildfires earlier this year.
Over two inches of rain fell in California's southern part on the week's end, with a another 50 millimetres broadly over the state on Saturday.
More than 100mm of rain fell over coastal areas of southern California in total, reaching a full 200 millimetres in areas of elevated terrain.
Such a weather system is a narrow band of tropical, saturated air originating from the tropics or subtropics.
Burn scar areas including Palisades and Altadena endured the worst of the rapid inundations and mudslides, forcing residents to flee.
In other parts of the state, a 71-year-old man lost his life after his vehicle was swept off a flooded bridge, and a seven-year-old girl and her dad were swept into the ocean by big swells on the California's Central Coast.
