diff --git a/.github/workflows/github_autotools_gnu.yml b/.github/workflows/github_autotools_gnu.yml
index 7be75bbe6..c290944e4 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/github_autotools_gnu.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/github_autotools_gnu.yml
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@ jobs:
         TEST_VERBOSE: 1
         DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS: "${{ matrix.conf-flag }} ${{ matrix.input-flag }} ${{ matrix.io-flag }}"
         SKIP_TESTS: "test_horiz_interp2.[23-24]" # TODO (couldn't reproduce outside CI)
+        DEBUG_FLAGS: "-O0 -g -fbounds-check -ffpe-trap=invalid,zero,overflow" # debug compiler flags taken from the mkmf template
     steps:
     - name: Checkout code
       uses: actions/checkout@v4
@@ -32,10 +33,10 @@ jobs:
       run: autoreconf -if
     - name: Configure the build
       if: ${{ matrix.conf-flag != '--disable-setting-flags' }}
-      run: ./configure ${DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS} || cat config.log
+      run: ./configure ${DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS} FCFLAGS="$FCFLAGS $DEBUG_FLAGS"
     - name: Configure the build with compiler flags
       if: ${{ matrix.conf-flag == '--disable-setting-flags' }}
-      run: ./configure ${DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS} FCFLAGS="-fdefault-real-8 -fdefault-double-8 -fcray-pointer -ffree-line-length-none -I/usr/include $FCFLAGS" || cat config.log
+      run: ./configure ${DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS} FCFLAGS="-fdefault-real-8 -fdefault-double-8 -fcray-pointer -ffree-line-length-none -I/usr/include $FCFLAGS $DEBUG_FLAGS" || cat config.log
     - name: Build the library
       run: make distcheck
       if: ${{ matrix.conf-flag != '--with-mpi=no' }}
diff --git a/test_fms/data_override/test_data_override2_mono.sh b/test_fms/data_override/test_data_override2_mono.sh
index be1cce410..df7f1dc66 100755
--- a/test_fms/data_override/test_data_override2_mono.sh
+++ b/test_fms/data_override/test_data_override2_mono.sh
@@ -40,10 +40,11 @@ _EOF
 
 for KIND in r4 r8
 do
-  rm -rf INPUT/*
   test_expect_success "test_data_override with monotonically increasing and decreasing data sets (${KIND})" '
     mpirun -n 6 ../test_data_override_ongrid_${KIND}
     '
+  rm -f INPUT/*
+  sync
 done
 
 rm -rf data_table