diff --git a/cicecore/cicedyn/infrastructure/io/io_pio2/ice_pio.F90 b/cicecore/cicedyn/infrastructure/io/io_pio2/ice_pio.F90
index 565e7adbb..9028fa9b7 100644
--- a/cicecore/cicedyn/infrastructure/io/io_pio2/ice_pio.F90
+++ b/cicecore/cicedyn/infrastructure/io/io_pio2/ice_pio.F90
@@ -83,7 +83,7 @@ subroutine ice_pio_init(mode, filename, File, clobber, fformat, &
    if ((pio_iotype==PIO_IOTYPE_NETCDF).or.(pio_iotype==PIO_IOTYPE_PNETCDF)) then
       nmode0 = shr_pio_getioformat(inst_name)
    else
-      nmode=0
+      nmode0 = 0
    endif
 
    call pio_seterrorhandling(ice_pio_subsystem, PIO_RETURN_ERROR)