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The Iberian nations are again dealing with the consequences of extensive flooding in the wake of Storm Claudia delivered heavy rain and powerful gusts the previous week.

Claudia's Origin and Path

This meteorological event originated from a region of depressed atmospheric pressure that had beforehand driven early season freezing temperatures and snowfall through the eastern sectors of Canada and the north-eastern US during the beginning of the eleventh month.

Claudia journeyed east across the Atlantic Ocean in the middle of the second week of November before losing momentum and stopping to the northwestern area of the Iberian peninsula, caught in the trough of an progressively more wavy air current.

Impact on Iberia

Spain's Galicia area in the northwest was hit first, with 80-150mm of rain falling along its western coastline in just 24 hours up to the evening of Wednesday as a leisurely moving system of rain pushed across western parts of the region.

More downpours and stormy weather on Thursday last week brought flooding to parts of Portugal where an older couple perished in the city of Lisbon after rising waters from the bursting Tagus River entered their home as they rested.

Unsettled atmospheric states lasted through the weekend, with a violent whirlwind ripping through a camping ground and a adjacent hotel in Albufeira in Portugal's south on the weekend's Saturday, killing an 85-year-old British woman and harming two dozen and eight persons.

Extended Consequences across Europe

The storm produced more extensive impacts across western Europe. By pulling tropical air from the subtropics, the system assisted in raising temperatures in France's south-west to 85.6 degrees Fahrenheit, the country's highest recorded November temperature.

By the following Friday, this warm and humid air mass collided with a chilly atmospheric body across more northern parts of the continent, forming a precipitation zone stretching from the west of Ireland to the Russian Federation.

In the Britain, this stationary front of rain produced record-breaking rain accumulations, causing major inundations in the principality of Wales.

As the storm progressively weakens in the coming days, the chilly atmospheric system will move towards the south, providing the continent its premier experience of winter.

Related Incidents in California, USA

California encountered a plume of tropical moisture last week, delivering torrential rain and powerful winds that resulted in flash flooding and debris flows in regions scarred by blazes previously in the year.

More than 50mm of rain was recorded in the southern region of the state on last Friday, with a additional two inches across extensive areas of California on the subsequent Saturday.

In excess of 100 millimetres of rain accumulated over coastal parts of the state's south in all, hitting a full 200 millimetres in spots on high ground.

An atmospheric river is a plume of tropical, saturated air stemming from the tropical or subtropical regions.

Locations with fire damage including Pacific Palisades and Altadena region experienced the worst of the rapid inundations and mudslides, leading to evacuations.

Elsewhere in California, a elderly male died after his vehicle was carried away from a inundated overpass, and a young girl aged seven and her dad were pulled into the ocean by large waves on the California's Central Coast.