Dear Dr. Duethmann,

Your manuscript “Why has catchment evaporation increased in the past 40 years? A data-based study in Austria” has been subjected now to review by three official reviewers and one spontaneous review. The reviewers agree that this is a novel contribution which is of high interest for HESS. Two of three official reviewers recommend major revision and one of them minor revision. I suggest major revision of the manuscript with some additional analysis and the main points to be handled in the revision are:
1. A more precise analysis of the role of wind, considering spatial and temporal variability of wind speed.
2. A better explanation of the relation between precipitation and actual evapotranspiration.
3. To consider also seasonal changes in the water balance.

In your answers to the main points and detailed comments, please indicate how comments have been handled exactly, indicating also whether text has been deleted and what the position of newly included text blocks is. I am looking forward to the new version of the paper.

Best regards,

Harrie-Jan Hendricks Franssen – editor
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Dear Dr Duethmann,

Your revised paper "Why has catchment evaporation increased in the past 40 years? A data-based study in Austria" has been submitted to re-review by the original three reviewers. They are happy with the changes you made to the paper and think that the paper is suited for publication now. I accept therefore the paper for publication. Congratulations with your work!

Sincerely,
Harrie-Jan Hendricks-Franssen