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The Iberian nations are again battling the aftermath of widespread flooding after Tempest Claudia delivered torrential downpours and powerful gusts last week.

The Storm's Genesis and Journey

The storm system formed from a low-pressure zone that had previously ushered in early season cold and snowy conditions through the eastern sectors of the Canadian territory and the north-eastern US in early 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, trapped within a trough of an progressively more wavy atmospheric river.

Effects in the Iberian Peninsula

The northwestern Spanish region of Galicia was initially impacted, with three to six inches of rain falling along its Atlantic coast in just one full day up to Wednesday evening as a sluggish front of rain pushed across western parts of the region.

Further showers and thunderstorms on Thursday last week led to floods to areas in Portugal where an older couple died in Lisbon after water from the overflowing Tagus River invaded their residence as they were asleep.

Stormy conditions lasted through the weekend, with a twister devastating a outdoor lodging area and a nearby hotel in the town of Albufeira in Portugal's south on Saturday, killing an elderly British lady and wounding 28 people.

Wider Effects across Europe

This system triggered wider effects across the western European nations. By siphoning heated air from the warmer regions, the system helped temperatures in south-west France to nearly 30 degrees Celsius, the state's maximum ever autumn temperature.

By Friday, this hot and moist atmospheric body collided with a chilly atmospheric body across the northern regions of the continent, creating a precipitation zone stretching from Ireland's west to Russia.

In the United Kingdom, this stationary front of rain delivered exceptionally large precipitation amounts, resulting in significant waterlogging in the Welsh region.

As the storm progressively weakens in the coming days, the frigid air will move towards the south, providing the continent its first taste of colder weather.

Parallel Events in California, USA

The Golden State encountered a plume of tropical moisture last week, delivering intense precipitation and high-velocity gusts that resulted in rapid flooding and mudslides in zones impacted by blazes in the recent past.

More than 50mm of rain poured down in southern California on the week's end, with a additional two inches widely across the state on Saturday.

In excess of 100 millimetres of rain was deposited on coastal areas of southern California in all, reaching eight inches in total in locations at higher elevations.

An atmospheric river is a plume of tropical, saturated air coming from the tropics or subtropics.

Burn scar areas including Pacific Palisades and Altadena endured the most severe the flash flooding and earth movements, leading to evacuations.

In other parts of the state, a man in his seventies passed away after his car was carried away from a inundated overpass, and a child of seven years and her parent were dragged into the sea by big swells on the California's Central Coast.