Storm Claudia Brings More Flooding to Portugal and the Spanish territory
Once again, Portugal and Spain find themselves dealing with the consequences of widespread flooding following Storm Claudia brought torrential downpours and powerful gusts the previous week.
The Storm's Formation and Trajectory
The storm system developed from a region of depressed atmospheric pressure that had earlier ushered in early season freezing temperatures and snowfall through eastern parts of Canada and the north-eastern United States in early November.
Claudia tracked eastwards across the Atlantic Ocean over the second weekend of November before decelerating and halting to the north-west of the Iberian peninsula, trapped within a trough of an increasingly amplified jet stream.
Impact on Iberia
Galicia in north-west Spain was initially impacted, with three to six inches of rain pouring down along its west coast in just 24 hours up to Wednesday night as a sluggish front of rain drifted across the western areas of the Iberian peninsula.
Additional rainfall and electrical storms on Thursday last week brought flooding to areas in Portugal where a senior pair died in the city of Lisbon after water from the overflowing Tagus River entered their home as they were asleep.
Stormy conditions continued into the weekend, with a violent whirlwind devastating a outdoor lodging area and a nearby hotel in Albufeira in the south in southern Portugal on the weekend's Saturday, fatally injuring an 85-year-old British woman and wounding 28 individuals.
Extended Consequences across the European continent
This system triggered broader repercussions across the western European nations. By siphoning heated 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 last Friday, this hot and moist atmospheric body met a cold air mass across the northern areas of Europe, forming a precipitation zone extending from Ireland's west to Russia.
In the Britain, this stationary front of rain delivered exceptionally large precipitation amounts, resulting in severe flooding in the Welsh region.
As Claudia loses strength in the coming days, the chilly atmospheric system will push south, providing the continent its first taste of colder weather.
Simultaneous Occurrences in California, USA
The Golden State encountered an "atmospheric river" recently, delivering torrential rain and powerful winds that led to rapid flooding and debris flows in zones impacted by forest fires previously in the year.
Over two inches of rain was recorded in the southern region of the state on Friday, with a another 50 millimetres across extensive areas of California on the subsequent Saturday.
More than 100mm of rain was deposited on coastal areas of the state's south in total, attaining eight inches in total in locations at higher elevations.
This meteorological feature is a plume of hot, humid air stemming from the equatorial or near-equatorial zones.
Burn scar areas including Palisades and Altadena suffered the most severe the rapid inundations and landslides, leading to evacuations.
Elsewhere in California, a 71-year-old man passed away after his vehicle was carried away from a submerged bridge, and a young girl aged seven and her father were dragged into the Pacific by large waves on the the state's central shoreline.
