diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index f179072..aacddf8 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -33,6 +33,7 @@ AC_PROG_RANLIB
 
 AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS([src/smithlab_cpp])
 
+AC_OPENMP([C++])
 AX_OPENMP([], [AC_MSG_FAILURE([OpenMP must be installed to build abismal])]) dnl make sure we have openmp for multi-core in abismal
 
 dnl check for the Zlib library