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Leaching risks of surface-applied agrichemicals in water repellent soils can only be quantified with an acceptable degree of accuracy if knowledge of the underlying principles and an appropriate simulation model are available. The present study aimed to investigate water flow and solute transport processes in a water repellent sandy soil, and to introduce and apply new modeling approaches. Automated TDR measurements revealed that preferential pathways develop rapidly during severe rain storms, causing infiltrating water to be preferentially transported to the deeper subsoil. Furthermore, preferred pathways recurred at the same sites during all rain events. Simulations with a 2-D, numerical finite element flow and transport model indicate that preferential flow paths will only form during infiltration into dry water repellent soils, i.e. in the range below the so-called critical soil water content. Incorporation of hysteresis is essential to generate the formation and recurrence of preferential flow paths with the model. The process of preferential flow and transport has been incorporated in the well-known SWAP model also, and applied to field data of tracer transport through a water repellent sandy soil in the Netherlands. Results indicate early arrival times of bromide in the subsoil in case preferential flow is taken into account.