diff --git a/src/solver/solve.jl b/src/solver/solve.jl
index 6fd13e9bec..ea84ce9cf7 100644
--- a/src/solver/solve.jl
+++ b/src/solver/solve.jl
@@ -68,8 +68,13 @@ function solve_atmos!(simulation)
             return AtmosSolveResults(sol, :success, walltime)
         end
     catch ret_code
-        CA.save_restart_func(integrator, simulation.output_dir)
-        CA.save_to_disk_func(integrator, simulation.output_dir)
+        if !CA.is_distributed(comms_ctx)
+            # We can only save when not distributed because we don't have a way to sync the
+            # MPI processes (maybe just one MPI rank crashes, leading to a hanginging
+            # simulation)
+            CA.save_restart_func(integrator, simulation.output_dir)
+            CA.save_to_disk_func(integrator, simulation.output_dir)
+        end
         @error "ClimaAtmos simulation crashed. Stacktrace for failed simulation" exception =
             (ret_code, catch_backtrace())
         return AtmosSolveResults(nothing, :simulation_crashed, nothing)