In this study, we investigate the effect of model resolution on the simulated hydrological response in five mesoscale basins in the Swiss Alps using the distributed hydrological model Spatial Processes in Hydrology (SPHY). Model simulations are performed at resolutions matching regional scale (500 × 500 m, also matching hyperresolution) and global scale modeling (40 × 40 km, matching a 0.5 × 0.5° pixel). The simulated response is investigated for four seasonal extremes, selected based on temperature and precipitation anomalies. Results from the high resolution model show that the intra-basin response covers a large range of anomalies, often with contrasting anomaly signs. The intra-basin response was grouped by land cover, where different dominant runoff generating processes are driving the differences between these groups. The low resolution model failed to capture the diverse and contrasting response from the high resolution model, since both the complex topography and land cover classes were not properly represented. We show that the hydrological response simulated with a high resolution model can be a lot more extreme than a low resolution model might indicate, which has important implications for global assessments carried out at their typical 0.5 × 0.5° resolution.