Extreme Rainfall Indices in Southern Levant and Related Large-Scale Atmospheric Circulation Patterns: A Spatial and Temporal Analysis

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

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Reviewer 2 Report

The manuscript by Salameh et al. addresses an important topic. Trends and drivers of extreme rainfall need to be better understood in order to better prepare for future events. The authors present a robust analysis, based on official data and a well-designed methodology. Statistical tests are carried out. The link to modes of variability is crucial and convincing. The resulting trend information, seasonally split up, are of great use for the extreme weather community. I recommend this paper to be published.

 

I only have a few comments, sorted by line number:

 

Line 40: There are also quite a few studies that for some regions found a decrease in extreme rainfall. These are worth mentioning here, too, for balance.

 

Lines 41-42: You are just discussing the last few decades. It is worth proving the longer-term millennial-scale palaeohydrological context, too. Examples:

Schilman et al. 2002: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/224962510_Sea-Land_paleoclimate_correlation_in_the_Eastern_Mediterranean_region_during_the_Late_Holocene
Mayewski et al. 2004: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0033589404000870
Orland et al. 2009: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0033589408001099

Frumkin et al: http://hol.sagepub.com/content/1/3/191

Greenbaum et al 2000: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/1096-9837%28200008%2925:9%3C951::AID-ESP110%3E3.0.CO;2-8/abstract
Greenbaum et al 2002: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/WS005p0311/summary

 

Line 159: Can you replace „global“ with another word to avoid confusion?

 

Line 187: It would be good if the long version of the indices would be mentioned, too. Not just the abbreviation/code.

 

Line 501-502: MO and NCP also influence precipitation in Europe, specified for certain months and regions. See Müller-Plath, G., H.-J. Lüdecke, S. Lüning (2022): Long-distance air pressure differences correlate with European rain. Scientific Reports 12, article number 10191. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-14028-w

Author Response

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Reviewer 3 Report

Thank you for providing me an opportunity to review the entitled manuscript"Extreme rainfall indices in the southern Levant and related large-scale atmospheric circulation patterns: A spatial and temporal analysis." It's an interesting study and the results and conclusions made by the authors are relatively complete and significant for atmospheric studies. The manuscript is relatively completed and can be accepted for publication with minimal effort. 

Major/minor comments:
It is recommended that the author rewrite the Introduction, increase the citation of the literature, and extract questions and useful information from the literature. Through literature review, point out the shortcomings of existing research, thus leading to the article's environmental significance and purpose. In this section, the literature review needs to be more critical.

The authors should detail the methodological novelties with the vast amount of existing literature in this area.

 These references might be related:

Climate Change and Weather Extremes in the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East

Innovative Trend Analysis of High-Altitude Climatology of Kashmir Valley, North-West Himalayas. Atmosphere 2022, 13, 764. 

Observed changes in extreme precipitation over the Tienshan Mountains and associated large-scale climate teleconnections

Future projection of precipitation and temperature changes in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region based on CMIP6. Monitoring Recent Changes in Drought and Wetness in the Source Region of the Yellow River Basin, China. Water 2022, 14(6), 861

The main objectives of this study should address in the Introduction.

Table 1. Wet-day? correct it.

The authors should discuss the conclusion section separately. 

The discussion needs more comparisons of results with literature and meanwhile highlighting the limitation of current that could be used as a benchmark for upcoming studies to take into consideration.

 

 

 

Author Response

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Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

Thank you very much for responding to each of my comments. Good work.