Dear Jan Nitzbon and colleagues,

Thank you for submitting a revised version of the manuscript and a detailed 1:1 reply to all reviewer comments. I can see that you addressed almost all reviewer comments. Hence, I am happy to accept this manuscript for publication in TC after some very few minor revisions:

(1) Please, report R2 and RMSE for all comparisons of model results to observations. If there is not enough space available in the figures for that, please use an additional table. Please, also dicuss these evaluation metrics in the text.

(2) Sensitivity study requested by reviewer 1: I agree with you to not perform a full parameter sensitivity study but concentrate on a few important parameters. However, the question was: which parameters (hence processes) are most important for the overall result/conclusion? Please, advance the discussion in that respect using the results you presented in the evaluation figures (and R2, RMSE will also support this discussion).

Thank you for submitting this important research to TC and I look forward receiving your revised version of the manuscript.

Best regards
Christian Beer

Dear Jan Nitzbon and co-authors

Thank you very much for addressing the minor revisions and the improved manuscript. I am happy to accept this manuscript for publication in TC.

Thank you for submitting this interesting and relevant study to TC.

Best regards
Christian Beer