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Portugal and Spain are once more battling the aftermath of significant flooding after Tempest Claudia unleashed heavy rain and powerful gusts over the past seven days.

The Storm's Genesis and Journey

The storm system formed from an area of low pressure that had beforehand driven unseasonably early cold and snowy conditions through the eastern sectors of the Canadian territory and the north-eastern US in early November.

The system tracked eastwards across the Atlantic during the second weekend of November before losing momentum and stopping to the north-west of the Iberian peninsula, caught in the trough of an ever more meandering atmospheric river.

Effects in the Iberian Peninsula

Spain's Galicia area in the northwest was hit first, with three to six inches of rain falling along its west coast in just a single day up to Wednesday evening as a leisurely moving system of rain drifted across the western areas of the region.

Further showers and thunderstorms on the following Thursday brought flooding to parts of Portugal where an older couple lost their lives in Lisbon after rising waters from the bursting Tagus River invaded their residence as they slept.

Unsettled atmospheric states persisted into the weekend, with a twister tearing through a camping ground and a adjacent hotel in Albufeira in the Algarve region on the weekend's Saturday, killing an 85-year-old British woman and injuring two dozen and eight persons.

Broader Impacts across Europe

This system triggered broader repercussions across Europe's western part. By siphoning heated air from the subtropical zones, the system assisted in raising temperatures in south-west France to 85.6 degrees Fahrenheit, the nation's all-time high autumn temperature.

By Friday, this warm and humid air mass met a frigid air system across more northern parts of the continent, generating a band of rain running from western Ireland to the Russian Federation.

In the UK, this stalling band of rain produced very high rainfall totals, leading to major inundations in the principality of Wales.

As the storm loses strength in the coming days, the chilly atmospheric system will advance southward, giving Europe its initial glimpse of winter.

Related Incidents in the state of California

California underwent a so-called atmospheric river last week, causing intense precipitation and strong winds that resulted in flash flooding and mudslides in zones scarred by blazes in the recent past.

In excess of 50 millimetres of rain poured down in the southern region of the state on Friday, with a further 50mm broadly over the state on Saturday.

Over four inches of rain accumulated over coastal areas of Southern CA in total, hitting 200mm overall in areas of elevated terrain.

Such a weather system is a concentrated stream of hot, humid air coming from the tropical or subtropical regions.

Burn scar areas including the Pacific Palisades area and the town of Altadena experienced the most intense the flash flooding and earth movements, leading to evacuations.

Across California, a elderly male died after his automobile was washed off a submerged bridge, and a young girl aged seven and her dad were swept into the ocean by large waves on the Central Coast.