Dear Authors,
thanks you for your reply in the discussions. The reviewer and also I believe that the paper has potential to be published in HESS and in general they support publication with minor revisions. However, I would still urge the authors to revise the paper accordingly and in the line of the reviewer comments before I can make a decision if the paper should be published in HESS. Please provide a revised version including a marked version and detailed comments to the reviews.
Best regards
Markus Weiler

Dear Authors,
I was reviewing the response to the authors and also the proposed changes. I am not completely happy with all of them, but I general, the changes and responses are adequate. When looking at some points in detail (also points that are related to publications I was involved with), i would like to propose to the authors to clarify the following points:
1) Brinkmann et al (2018) P10L16ff: This is not only a modelling study, but a study that is based on detailed isotope and soil moisture observations. It is also not correct, that evaporation was not accounted for. Evaporation was simulated, but the fractionation effect was not considered. In addition, the statement, that they computed 50% is also not completely correct, as the number is related to an average situation with relation to the end of the summer (your sampling was performed in July!). So it maybe worthwhile to discuss the differences and assumptions a bit more in detail, also the effect of changes from year to year (lower than average precipitation in spring in the year of sampling will alter SOI).
2) In order to compare values from different studies, it would be worthwhile to compare the approaches directly, for example the SOI should be applied to continuous measurement to see the direct effect and possible changes over the year.
I hope that the authors are able to provide some details to this questions before the paper can be accepted for publications in HESS.
Best regards
Markus Weiler