Deadly Storms Pummel Iberian Peninsula, Leaving Trail of Destruction

In the past week, the Iberian Peninsula has been battered by heavy rainfall and strong winds from Storm Claudia, a system that developed from an area of low pressure that had earlier brought early-season cold and snowy conditions to eastern parts of Canada and the northeastern United States.

The storm first hit the Galicia region in northwest Spain, with 80 to 150mm of rain falling along the west coast in just 24 hours. The slow-moving band of rain then pushed across western parts of the Iberian Peninsula, bringing further showers and thunderstorms to Portugal on Thursday. This resulted in flooding that claimed the lives of an elderly couple in Lisbon, whose home was inundated by the overflowing Tagus River as they slept.

The stormy conditions persisted into the weekend, with a tornado tearing through a campsite and a nearby hotel in Albufeira, southern Portugal, on Saturday. The tornado killed an 85-year-old British woman and injured 28 people.

While Claudia has had wider effects across western Europe, including helping temperatures in southwest France reach a record high for November, the system is now weakening. As it does so, a cold air mass will push south, bringing Europe its first taste of winter.