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The Iberian nations are again battling the aftermath of extensive inundation following Tempest Claudia brought heavy rain and powerful gusts over the past seven days.

Claudia's Origin and Path

This weather system originated from a low-pressure zone that had earlier ushered in early season chilly and snowy weather through the eastern regions of the Canadian territory and the north-eastern US in early November.

Claudia journeyed east across the Atlantic during the second weekend of November before decelerating and halting to the northwestern area of the Iberian region, caught in the trough of an increasingly amplified air current.

Effects in the Iberian Peninsula

The northwestern Spanish region of Galicia was initially impacted, with three to six inches of rain coming down along its Atlantic coast in just 24 hours up to Wednesday evening as a leisurely moving system of rain crawled across the western areas of the Iberian peninsula.

Further showers and thunderstorms on the following Thursday brought flooding to parts of Portugal where an older couple died in the city of Lisbon after floodwaters from the swollen Tagus entered their home as they slept.

Stormy conditions persisted into the weekend, with a twister ripping through a camping ground and a adjacent hotel in the town of Albufeira in southern Portugal on Saturday, killing an elderly British lady and wounding 28 individuals.

Extended Consequences across the European continent

This system triggered wider effects across western Europe. By drawing warm air from the subtropical zones, the system assisted in raising temperatures in south-west France to nearly 30 degrees Celsius, the nation's all-time high November temperature.

By the following Friday, this warm and humid air mass clashed with a chilly atmospheric body across the northern regions of Europe, generating a precipitation zone stretching from the west of Ireland to the Russian Federation.

In the UK, this stalling band of rain produced record-breaking rain accumulations, leading to significant waterlogging in the Welsh region.

As this weather phenomenon continues to weaken early this week, the frigid air will push south, delivering to Europe its premier experience of colder weather.

Related Incidents in California, USA

California encountered an "atmospheric river" the previous week, causing intense precipitation and high-velocity gusts that provoked sudden inundations and landslides in zones affected by forest fires in the recent past.

More than 50mm of rain poured down in the southern region of the state on Friday, with a additional two inches widely across the state on Saturday.

More than 100mm of rain accumulated over coastal parts of the state's south in total, reaching a full 200 millimetres in locations at higher elevations.

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

Regions previously burned including Palisades and Altadena region suffered the most intense the sudden floods and mudslides, forcing residents to flee.

Across California, a elderly male lost his life after his car was swept off a flooded bridge, and a child of seven years and her father were swept into the sea by big swells on the the state's central shoreline.