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The passage of Storm Claudia has left three people dead in Portugal and caused major damage in parts of the UK.
On Saturday, England and Wales experienced severe flooding, as people from the town of Monmouth in Wales were rescued from their homes, leaving residents on Sunday to wake up to most of the town under water due to the River Monnow bursting its banks. In England, 42 flood warnings remain in place.
Aerial footage showed roads submerged under muddy brown water, with cars and businesses along Monmouth’s main street flooded after the River Monnow rose to a record level and spilled over its banks.
Nearly 12 centimetres of rain fell across southeast Wales overnight, while parts of England also faced flooding from the storm, which brought damaging winds that downed trees. Several rail lines were disrupted by high water or fallen trees.
“I personally haven’t seen it so bad for probably 40 years,” since flood defences were put in place for Monmouth, said Peter Fox, a Conservative member of the Welsh Parliament.
The town centre, close to the English border, sits just upstream of where the Monnow joins the River Wye, the fourth-largest river in the UK.
As Storm Claudia clears, snow could be on its way, with temperatures dropping to -7 °C next week in the UK, according to the Met Office.
In Portugal
One person died as a result of a tornado that hit a campsite in Albufeira, Algarve. The phenomenon, part of storm Cláudia, which on Saturday continued to affect the whole of mainland Portugal, causing several trees to fall, one of which victimised an 85-year-old year British woman. It also left a trail of destruction in the affected campsite. There was at least one serious injury and 20 minor injuries.
Meteorologist Paula Leitão confirmed in an interview with CNN Portugal that it was a tornado.
The bad weather hit the south of Portugal after severely affecting the north in the early hours of Saturday morning, with heavy flooding in Santa Maria da Feira and Vila do Conde, where at least one family was left homeless.
On Thursday, a couple died in a flood in the town of Fernão Ferro, in the municipality of Seixal (greater Lisbon).
The district of Braga was put on orange alert on Saturday by civil protection, after having issued the same warning for Faro, Setúbal and Beja. The districts of Viana do Castelo, Porto, Viseu, Aveiro, Coimbra, Portalegre, Santarém and Lisbon are under a yellow warning due to the forecast of heavy rain and thunderstorms. The south coast and the mountainous regions of Madeira Island are also under the same warning.
