diff --git a/CIME/baselines/performance.py b/CIME/baselines/performance.py
index 55092f397e2..67c19dbd43f 100644
--- a/CIME/baselines/performance.py
+++ b/CIME/baselines/performance.py
@@ -431,6 +431,8 @@ def read_baseline_file(baseline_file):
     str
         Value stored in baseline file without comments.
     """
+    if not os.path.exists(baseline_file):
+        return "\nNO file {} found".format(baseline_file)
     with open(baseline_file) as fd:
         lines = [x.strip() for x in fd.readlines() if not x.startswith("#") and x != ""]
 
diff --git a/CIME/tests/test_unit_baselines_performance.py b/CIME/tests/test_unit_baselines_performance.py
index 1564541ba9a..ed6b2c0a085 100644
--- a/CIME/tests/test_unit_baselines_performance.py
+++ b/CIME/tests/test_unit_baselines_performance.py
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 import gzip
 import tempfile
 import unittest
+import os
 from unittest import mock
 from pathlib import Path
 
@@ -139,6 +140,8 @@ def test_read_baseline_file_multi_line(self):
         assert baseline == "sha:1df0 date:2023 1000.0\nsha:3b05 date:2023 2000.0"
 
     def test_read_baseline_file_content(self):
+        if not os.path.exists("/tmp/cpl-mem.log"):
+            os.mknod("/tmp/cpl-mem.log")
         with mock.patch(
             "builtins.open", mock.mock_open(read_data="sha:1df0 date:2023 1000.0")
         ) as mock_file: