diff --git a/makani/models/common/spectral_convolution.py b/makani/models/common/spectral_convolution.py
index 57d768f..69064c0 100644
--- a/makani/models/common/spectral_convolution.py
+++ b/makani/models/common/spectral_convolution.py
@@ -99,7 +99,7 @@ def __init__(self, forward_transform, inverse_transform, in_channels, out_channe
         # seemingly the first weight is not really complex, so we need to account for that
         scale[0] *= math.sqrt(2.0)
         init = scale * torch.randn(*weight_shape, dtype=torch.complex64)
-        self.weight = nn.Parameter(init)
+        self.weight = nn.Parameter(torch.view_as_real(init))
 
         if self.operator_type == "dhconv":
             self.weight.is_shared_mp = ["matmul", "w"]
@@ -134,7 +134,7 @@ def forward(self, x):
                 residual = residual.to(dtype)
 
         # approach with unpadded weights
-        xp = self._contract(x, self.weight, separable=self.separable, operator_type=self.operator_type)
+        xp = self._contract(x, torch.view_as_complex(self.weight), separable=self.separable, operator_type=self.operator_type)
         x = xp.contiguous()
 
         with amp.autocast(enabled=False):