diff --git a/cftime/_cftime.pyx b/cftime/_cftime.pyx
index 4a98fca9..60080a6d 100644
--- a/cftime/_cftime.pyx
+++ b/cftime/_cftime.pyx
@@ -94,7 +94,7 @@ def _dateparse(timestr):
     (units, isostring) = _datesplit(timestr)
 
     # parse the date string.
-    year, month, day, hour, minute, second, utc_offset =\
+    year, month, day, hour, minute, second, microsecond, utc_offset =\
         _parse_date( isostring.strip() )
     if year >= MINYEAR:
         basedate = real_datetime(year, month, day, hour, minute, second)
@@ -122,7 +122,7 @@ cdef _parse_date_and_units(timestr,calendar='standard'):
             raise ValueError(
             "units must be one of 'seconds', 'minutes', 'hours' or 'days' (or singular version of these), got '%s'" % units)
     # parse the date string.
-    year, month, day, hour, minute, second, utc_offset = _parse_date(
+    year, month, day, hour, minute, second, microsecond, utc_offset = _parse_date(
         isostring.strip())
     return units, utc_offset, datetime(year, month, day, hour, minute, second)
 
@@ -916,7 +916,12 @@ cpdef _parse_date(datestring):
     The timezone is parsed from the date string, assuming UTC
     by default.
 
+    Note that a seconds element with a fractional component
+    (e.g. 12.5) is converted into integer seconds and integer
+    microseconds.
+
     Adapted from pyiso8601 (http://code.google.com/p/pyiso8601/)
+
     """
     if not isinstance(datestring, str) and not isinstance(datestring, unicode):
         raise ValueError("Expecting a string %r" % datestring)
@@ -931,13 +936,14 @@ cpdef _parse_date(datestring):
         groups["minute"] = 0
     if groups["second"] is None:
         groups["second"] = 0
-    # if groups["fraction"] is None:
-    #    groups["fraction"] = 0
-    # else:
-    #    groups["fraction"] = int(float("0.%s" % groups["fraction"]) * 1e6)
+    if groups["fraction"] is None:
+        groups["fraction"] = 0
+    else:
+        groups["fraction"] = int(float("0.%s" % groups["fraction"]) * 1e6)
     iyear = int(groups["year"])
     return iyear, int(groups["month"]), int(groups["day"]),\
         int(groups["hour"]), int(groups["minute"]), int(groups["second"]),\
+        int(groups["fraction"]),\
         tzoffset_mins
 
 cdef _check_index(indices, times, nctime, calendar, select):
diff --git a/test/test_cftime.py b/test/test_cftime.py
index d78b1e05..94a8588b 100644
--- a/test/test_cftime.py
+++ b/test/test_cftime.py
@@ -1233,25 +1233,25 @@ def test_parse_date_tz(self):
         "Test timezone parsing in _parse_date"
 
         # these should succeed and are ISO8601 compliant
-        expected_parsed_date = (2017, 5, 1, 0, 0, 0, 60.0)
+        expected_parsed_date = (2017, 5, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 60.0)
         for datestr in ("2017-05-01 00:00+01:00", "2017-05-01 00:00+0100", "2017-05-01 00:00+01"):
             d = _parse_date(datestr)
             assert_equal(d, expected_parsed_date)
         # some more tests with non-zero minutes, should all be ISO compliant and work
-        expected_parsed_date = (2017, 5, 1, 0, 0, 0, 85.0)
+        expected_parsed_date = (2017, 5, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 85.0)
         for datestr in ("2017-05-01 00:00+01:25", "2017-05-01 00:00+0125"):
             d = _parse_date(datestr)
             assert_equal(d, expected_parsed_date)
         # these are NOT ISO8601 compliant and should not even be parseable but will be parsed with timezone anyway
         # because, due to support of other legacy time formats, they are difficult to reject
         # ATTENTION: only the hours part of this will be parsed, single-digit minutes will be ignored!
-        expected_parsed_date = (2017, 5, 1, 0, 0, 0, 60.0)
+        expected_parsed_date = (2017, 5, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 60.0)
         for datestr in ("2017-05-01 00:00+01:0", "2017-05-01 00:00+01:", "2017-05-01 00:00+01:5"):
             d = _parse_date(datestr)
             assert_equal(d, expected_parsed_date)
         # these should not even be parseable as datestrings but are parseable anyway with ignored timezone
         # this is because the module also supports some legacy, non-standard time strings
-        expected_parsed_date = (2017, 5, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0.0)
+        expected_parsed_date = (2017, 5, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0.0)
         for datestr in ("2017-05-01 00:00+1",):
             d = _parse_date(datestr)
             assert_equal(d, expected_parsed_date)
@@ -1486,6 +1486,7 @@ def test_dayofwk_after_replace(date_type):
     original_dayofwk = date.dayofwk
     expected = (original_dayofwk + 1) % 7
     result = date.replace(day=2).dayofwk
+    print ('dch', repr(date), original_dayofwk, expected, result, repr(date.replace(day=2)), cftime.__file__)
     assert result == expected