Heavy rainfall hit Galicia region first before slowly moving across western parts of the Iberian peninsula
Portugal and Spain are again recovering from flooding after Storm Claudia brought heavy rain and strong winds last week. The storm developed from an area of low pressure that had earlier driven early season cold and snowy conditions through eastern parts of Canada and the north-eastern US through early November.
The system tracked eastwards across the Atlantic during the second weekend of November before slowing and stalling to the north-west of the Iberian peninsula, caught in the trough of an increasingly amplified, or wavy, jet stream. Spain’s meteorological service AEMET named the storm last Monday before the arrival of several bouts of heavy rainfall, which slowly pushed through during the rest of the week.
Galicia in north-west Spain was hit first, with 80 to 150mm of rain falling along its west coast in just 24 hours up to Wednesday evening as a slow-moving band of rain pushed across western parts of the Iberian peninsula. Further showers and thunderstorms on Thursday brought flooding to parts of Portugal where an elderly couple died in Lisbon after water from the overflowing Tagus River entered their home as they slept. Stormy conditions persisted into the weekend, with a tornado tearing through a campsite and a nearby hotel in Albufeira, southern Portugal, on Saturday, killing an 85-year-old British woman and injuring 28 people.
