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Portugal and Spain are once more recovering from significant inundation after Storm Claudia brought heavy rain and powerful gusts over the past seven days.

Claudia's Origin and Path

This weather system originated from a region of depressed atmospheric pressure that had beforehand driven unseasonably early freezing temperatures and snowfall through the eastern sectors of the Canadian territory and the north-eastern US in early November.

The system moved eastward across the Atlantic Ocean in the middle of the second week of November before losing momentum and stopping to the north-west of the Iberian region, snared in a dip of an increasingly amplified atmospheric river.

Consequences for Spain and Portugal

Galicia in north-west Spain was hit first, with three to six inches of rain coming down along its Atlantic coast in just a single day up to the evening of Wednesday as a leisurely moving system of rain drifted across the western areas of the region.

More downpours and stormy weather on the following Thursday caused inundations to areas in Portugal where an elderly couple died in the city of Lisbon after rising waters from the bursting Tagus River flooded their dwelling as they rested.

Stormy conditions continued into the weekend, with a violent whirlwind ripping through a campsite and a close-by inn in Albufeira in the south in southern Portugal on Saturday, claiming the life of an 85-year-old British woman and harming two dozen and eight persons.

Extended Consequences across the European continent

The storm produced wider effects across the western European nations. By pulling tropical air from the warmer regions, the system helped temperatures in France's south-west to 29.8C (85.6F), the state's maximum ever autumn temperature.

By the following Friday, this hot and moist atmospheric body met a chilly atmospheric body across the northern areas of the continent, creating a rainfall belt running from the west of Ireland to Russia.

In the Britain, this stalling band of rain produced very high rainfall totals, causing severe flooding in the Welsh region.

As Claudia loses strength early this week, the frigid air will advance southward, delivering to Europe its initial glimpse of the winter season.

Parallel Events in California, USA

California underwent an "atmospheric river" the previous week, causing intense precipitation and powerful winds that provoked sudden inundations and debris flows in regions scarred by blazes earlier this year.

Over two inches of rain fell in southern California on Friday, with a further 50mm broadly over the state on the subsequent Saturday.

In excess of 100 millimetres of rain was deposited on shoreline regions of southern California in aggregate, hitting a full 200 millimetres in spots on high ground.

Such a weather system is a narrow band of hot, humid air originating from the tropics or subtropics.

Locations with fire damage including Pacific Palisades and Altadena experienced the most severe the rapid inundations and earth movements, leading to evacuations.

Across California, a man in his seventies lost his life after his vehicle was carried away from a submerged bridge, and a young girl aged seven and her dad were swept into the Pacific by big swells on the the state's central shoreline.