diff --git a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/cdo/package.py b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/cdo/package.py
index 7400c3a56c30cb1e0a24cc5cb03e968f1405e149..a2f04e5b357cf1f569261917e18422a871c5c14b 100644
--- a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/cdo/package.py
+++ b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/cdo/package.py
@@ -34,7 +34,11 @@ class Cdo(Package):
 
     version('1.6.9', 'bf0997bf20e812f35e10188a930e24e2')
 
+    variant('mpi', default=True)
+
     depends_on('netcdf')
+    depends_on('netcdf+mpi', when='+mpi')
+    depends_on('netcdf~mpi', when='~mpi')
 
     def install(self, spec, prefix):
         configure('--prefix={0}'.format(prefix))