I would kindly ask the authors to reply to the concerns raised by reviewer #3. Please also feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns you may have.

Again, I would like to apologise to the authors for the exceedingly long review process. We try our best to make this process as efficient as possible. However, a series of compounding circumstances has resulted in the long delay. I am confident, though, that we are approaching the end.

Best Regards

Gerd Folberth
(topical editor)

Ready to go on pending some minor revisions indicated by the reviewer.

The manuscript is ready for publication in GMD.

At this point I want to express my deepest gratitude to the authors and all reviewers for persevering and helping me in editing this manuscript. I think the efforts are more than justified by the excellent outcome.

I also would like to extend my sincere apologies to the authors for the excessive amount of time it has taken to bring the manuscript to publication for which I assume sole and total responsibility.

Gerd Folberth
(topical editor)