diff --git a/modules/util/acspo_validate.py b/modules/util/acspo_validate.py
index eec2638931f76f64d933ee16566fb72dea4ad35f..e61cb5c66c0fcca01b2b5e3534153aaee0957aa7 100644
--- a/modules/util/acspo_validate.py
+++ b/modules/util/acspo_validate.py
@@ -122,6 +122,9 @@ def acspo_validate(oper_file, cspp_file, rel_tol=0.005, deg_tol=0.0002, outfile_
     valid_lon_oper = lon_oper[both_clear]
     valid_lat_oper = lat_oper[both_clear]
 
+    print('fraction SSTs approx equal: ',
+          np.sum(np.isclose(valid_sst_cspp, valid_sst_oper, rtol=rel_tol))/np.sum(both_clear))
+
     xarray_data = xr.Dataset({
         'sst_cspp': xr.DataArray(valid_sst_cspp, coords=None, dims=None, name='sst_cspp'),
         'sst_oper': xr.DataArray(valid_sst_oper, coords=None, dims=None, name='sst_oper'),
@@ -133,9 +136,6 @@ def acspo_validate(oper_file, cspp_file, rel_tol=0.005, deg_tol=0.0002, outfile_
     if outfile_nc is not None:
         xarray_data.to_netcdf(outfile_nc)
 
-    print('fraction SSTs approx equal: ',
-          np.sum(np.isclose(valid_sst_cspp, valid_sst_oper, rtol=rel_tol))/np.sum(both_clear))
-
     h5f_oper.close()
     h5f_cspp.close()