## 3 Results and Discussion
### Moisture Penetration
#### 3.3.2 Near Past  
Figure 14a-c presents the water content profile for the selected three spells for the near past (Table 6), while Figure 14d-f shows the respective precipitation for each of these spells. The first two spells show the results for an additional 24 h after the spells ended because they had a substantial WDR event right before the spell ended (Figure 14d,e). Figure 13: Overview of the WDR spells for the five periods selected for Lisbon and the respective annual precipitation. Figure 14a corresponds to the first selected spell, which has a duration of 196 h and has a total precipitation during the spell of 27 L/(m2h). The water content reaches its highest value of 14.8 kg/m2 on 22/01 at 20:00 and its lowest value of 3.3 kg/m2 on 14/01 at 20:00. These equivalent water contents were determined as described in WUFI [9]. It is visible that when the spell starts, the water content through the assembly is rather low (i.e., 14/01 at 17:00), but, subsequently, the water content increases substantially in both materials (Figure 14a). The vertical values at the thickness of 15 mm correspond to the connection between the two materials, which have different hygric properties (Figure 3a), and, therefore, there is a discontinuity. It is also visible that once the spell starts, moisture starts to enter the assembly through the exterior layer (i.e., render) and eventually reaches the inner layer (solid brick). For this spell, moisture can reach substantially until ca. 110 mm depth (at 17.9 kg/m3), substantially reaching the brick layer. It is also interesting to observe that when the spell ends, the moisture content in the exterior layer is rather high (Figure 14a, purple line), but 24 h later, it is already 5.3 times lower at the exterior surface. This decrease will eventually spread to the remainder of the assembly as long as there is no WDR spell soon. Figure 14b corresponds to the second selected spell, which has a duration of 24 h and has a total precipitation during the spell of 24.2 L/(m2h). This means that for a much shorter period (i.e., 8.2 times lower), the assembly is subjected to a similar level of precipitation to the first selected spell (just 12% lower). The water content reaches its highest value of 16.0 kg/m2 on 17/03 at 00:00 and its lowest value of 6.9 kg/m2 on 16/03 at 01:00. These values mean that the amount of moisture that exists in the assembly is greater for this spell than for the first spell, i.e., a much longer spell with slightly higher precipitation. It is visible that at the beginning of the spell (i.e., 16/03 at 01:00), the water content at the exterior surface is rather high, but it is also visible that the water content level from the interface until the middle of the solid brick layer is considerably higher than for the first spell (Figure 14a,b, red lines). This means that the masonry layer was not able to dry out the moisture that managed to penetrate the assembly due to the previous spells and, therefore, has a moisture excess. After the dry period (Figure 14b, green line), it is visible that the water content values nearer to the interface are still rather high, but they are considerably lower than when the spell ends (Figure 14b, purple line). Nonetheless, the outdoor absorbed moisture in this spell manages to penetrate the assembly until a depth of ca. 110 mm, i.e., the same depth as the first spell, but at a much