diff --git a/cmake/Modules/FindNetCDF.cmake b/cmake/Modules/FindNetCDF.cmake
index 7f0ee93520..5c8caa9208 100644
--- a/cmake/Modules/FindNetCDF.cmake
+++ b/cmake/Modules/FindNetCDF.cmake
@@ -112,6 +112,8 @@ NetCDF_check_interface (F90 netcdf.mod  netcdff)
 
 #export accumulated results to internal varS that rest of project can depend on
 list (APPEND NetCDF_libs "${NETCDF_C_LIBRARIES}")
+set (NETCDF_LIBRARIES ${NetCDF_libs})
+set (NETCDF_INCLUDE_DIRS ${NetCDF_includes})
 
 # handle the QUIETLY and REQUIRED arguments and set NETCDF_FOUND to TRUE if
 # all listed variables are TRUE
@@ -121,14 +123,11 @@ find_package_handle_standard_args (NetCDF
 
 # Copy the results to the output variables and target.
 if(NetCDF_FOUND)
-  set (NETCDF_LIBRARIES ${NetCDF_libs})
-  set (NETCDF_INCLUDE_DIRS ${NetCDF_includes})
-
   if(NOT TARGET NetCDF::NetCDF)
     add_library(NetCDF::NetCDF UNKNOWN IMPORTED)
     set_target_properties(NetCDF::NetCDF PROPERTIES
       IMPORTED_LOCATION "${NETCDF_LIBRARY}"
-      INTERFACE_INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES "${NetCDF_includes}"
+      INTERFACE_INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES "${NETCDF_INCLUDE_DIRS}"
       INTERFACE_LINK_LIBRARIES "${NETCDF_LIBRARIES}")
   endif()
 endif()