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The Iberian nations are again dealing with the consequences of widespread inundation following Storm Claudia unleashed torrential downpours and strong winds the previous week.

Claudia's Origin and Path

This meteorological event originated from a low-pressure zone that had earlier driven early season freezing temperatures and snowfall through eastern parts of Canada and the American north-east in early November.

This storm tracked eastwards across the Atlantic Ocean during the second weekend of November before losing momentum and stopping to the northwestern area of the Spanish and Portuguese landmass, caught in the trough of an increasingly amplified atmospheric river.

Consequences for Spain and Portugal

Galicia in north-west Spain was the first affected, with three to six inches of rain pouring down along its west coast in just a single day up to the evening of Wednesday as a sluggish front of rain drifted across the western areas of the region.

Further showers and thunderstorms on Thursday brought flooding to areas in Portugal where an older couple perished in the city of Lisbon after water from the overflowing Tagus River entered their home as they were asleep.

Tempestuous weather continued into the weekend, with a tornado devastating a camping ground and a nearby hotel in the town of Albufeira in the Algarve region on Saturday last week, claiming the life of an 85-year-old British woman and harming two dozen and eight persons.

Wider Effects across Europe

The storm produced broader repercussions across Europe's western part. By drawing warm air from the subtropical zones, the system assisted in raising temperatures in France's south-west to nearly 30 degrees Celsius, the nation's all-time high late autumn reading.

By last Friday, this warm and humid air mass met a frigid air system across the northern regions of Europe, forming a precipitation zone running from western Ireland to the Russian Federation.

In the UK, this stalling band of rain brought very high rainfall totals, resulting in severe flooding in Wales.

As Claudia loses strength early this week, the frigid air will move towards the south, providing the continent its first taste of the winter season.

Parallel Events in the state of California

The Golden State experienced a plume of tropical moisture the previous week, delivering torrential rain and strong winds that resulted in sudden inundations and mudslides in zones affected by wildfires in the recent past.

More than 50mm of rain fell in southern California on the week's end, with a additional two inches broadly over the state on Saturday last.

In excess of 100 millimetres of rain fell over shoreline regions of southern California in total, reaching eight inches in total in areas of elevated terrain.

An atmospheric river is a narrow band of warm, moist air originating from the tropics or subtropics.

Burn scar areas including Pacific Palisades and the town of Altadena experienced the worst of the flash flooding and mudslides, leading to evacuations.

Across California, a elderly male lost his life after his car was carried away from a flooded bridge, and a young girl aged seven and her dad were dragged into the ocean by large waves on the California's Central Coast.