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Once again, Portugal and Spain find themselves battling the aftermath of widespread flooding after Storm Claudia delivered heavy rain and strong winds the previous week.

The Storm's Formation and Trajectory

This weather system developed from a region of depressed atmospheric pressure that had previously driven early season cold and snowy conditions through eastern parts of the Canadian territory and the American north-east at the start of November.

The system journeyed east across the Atlantic in the middle of the second week of November before losing momentum and stopping to the north-west of the Spanish and Portuguese landmass, trapped within a trough of an progressively more wavy atmospheric river.

Impact on the Iberian Peninsula

The northwestern Spanish region of Galicia was hit first, with three to six inches of rain pouring down along its Atlantic coast in just 24 hours up to Wednesday evening as a sluggish front of rain drifted across the western areas of the peninsula.

Further showers and thunderstorms on the following Thursday caused inundations to parts of Portugal where an elderly couple died in Lisbon after floodwaters from the swollen Tagus entered their home as they were asleep.

Stormy conditions lasted through the weekend, with a violent whirlwind ripping through a outdoor lodging area and a close-by inn in the town of Albufeira in Portugal's south on the weekend's Saturday, claiming the life of an 85-year-old British woman and injuring two dozen and eight persons.

Wider Effects across the European continent

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

By last Friday, this tropical air mass clashed with a cold air mass across the northern areas of Europe, creating a precipitation zone extending from western Ireland to Russia.

In the UK, this halting system of rain delivered very high rainfall totals, resulting in severe flooding in the principality of Wales.

As this weather phenomenon progressively weakens in the coming days, the frigid air will advance southward, providing the continent its premier experience of the winter season.

Simultaneous Occurrences in California, USA

The Golden State experienced a plume of tropical moisture recently, causing intense precipitation and high-velocity gusts that provoked sudden inundations and debris flows in areas scarred by wildfires previously in the year.

Over two inches of rain poured down in the southern region of the state on Friday, with a further 50mm across extensive areas of California on Saturday.

More than 100mm of rain was deposited on coastal areas of the state's south in all, attaining a full 200 millimetres in areas of elevated terrain.

Such a weather system is a narrow band of tropical, saturated air coming from the equatorial or near-equatorial zones.

Regions previously burned including Pacific Palisades and Altadena region experienced the most severe the flash flooding and landslides, forcing residents to flee.

In other parts of the state, a man in his seventies lost his life after his car was carried away from a inundated overpass, and a seven-year-old girl and her parent were swept into the Pacific by large waves on the Central Coast.