diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
index 0e6b7c7..e2fa32b 100644
--- a/Dockerfile
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -108,6 +108,7 @@ RUN git clone -b release-clm5.0 https://github.com/ESCOMP/CTSM.git ctsm \
  && chown -R clm:clm /model/ctsm \
  && cd ..
 
+RUN mkdir -p /inputdata
 VOLUME ["/inputdata"]
 ENV PATH="/model/ctsm/cime/scripts:${NCDIR}/bin:${PATH}" \
     LANG=C.UTF-8