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Simple models for the diurnal cycle and convectively coupled waves Received: date / Accepted: date Abstract This paper presents a study of the diurnal cycle of tropical precipitation and its interaction with convectively coupled waves in the context of simple models with crude vertical resolution. One and two baroclinic mode models are tested in both the context of a one-column model and the context of full spatial dependency that permits waves to propagate and interact with the diurnal cycle. It is found that a one baroclinic mode model is capable of reproducing a realistic diurnal cycle of tropical precipitation both over land and over the ocean provided an adequate switch function is used to mimic the congestus preconditioning mechanism that operates in the multicloud model of Khouider and Majda. However, a full two baroclinic mode multicloud model is needed to capture the interaction of convectively coupled tropical waves with the diurnal cycle. In a more conventional mass-flux parameterization framework, both one and two baroclinic mode models fail to capture the diurnal cycle of tropical precipitation