diff --git a/components/eamxx/src/diagnostics/zonal_avg.cpp b/components/eamxx/src/diagnostics/zonal_avg.cpp
index ba5a3211f5d7..71056613ff59 100644
--- a/components/eamxx/src/diagnostics/zonal_avg.cpp
+++ b/components/eamxx/src/diagnostics/zonal_avg.cpp
@@ -2,6 +2,8 @@
 
 #include "share/field/field_utils.hpp"
 
+#include <ekat/util/ekat_math_utils.hpp>
+
 namespace scream {
 
 void ZonalAvgDiag::compute_zonal_sum(const Field &result, const Field &field, const Field &weight,
@@ -170,13 +172,14 @@ void ZonalAvgDiag::initialize_impl(const RunType /*run_type*/) {
   using RangePolicy     = Kokkos::RangePolicy<Field::device_t::execution_space>;
   const Real lat_delta  = sp(180.0) / m_num_zonal_bins;
   const int ncols       = field_layout.dim(0);
+  const int nbins       = m_num_zonal_bins;
   auto lat_view         = m_lat.get_view<const Real *>();
   auto zonal_area_view  = zonal_area.get_view<const Real *>();
   auto scaled_area_view = m_scaled_area.get_view<Real *>();
   Kokkos::parallel_for(
       "scale_area_by_zonal_area_" + field.name(), RangePolicy(0, ncols),
       KOKKOS_LAMBDA(const int &i) {
-        const int lat_i = (lat_view(i) + sp(90.0)) / lat_delta;
+        const int lat_i = ekat::impl::min(static_cast<int>((lat_view(i) + sp(90.0)) / lat_delta),nbins-1);
         scaled_area_view(i) /= zonal_area_view(lat_i);
       });
 }
diff --git a/components/eamxx/src/share/grid/abstract_grid.cpp b/components/eamxx/src/share/grid/abstract_grid.cpp
index 2eedc097d12d..9368f1ef0624 100644
--- a/components/eamxx/src/share/grid/abstract_grid.cpp
+++ b/components/eamxx/src/share/grid/abstract_grid.cpp
@@ -81,7 +81,7 @@ get_vertical_layout (const bool midpoints,
 {
   using namespace ShortFieldTagsNames;
   auto l = get_vertical_layout(midpoints);
-  l.append_dim(CMP,vector_dim,vec_dim_name);
+  l.prepend_dim(CMP,vector_dim,vec_dim_name);
   return l;
 }
 
@@ -257,9 +257,10 @@ is_valid_layout (const FieldLayout& layout) const
     case LayoutType::Tensor0D:
       // 0d quantities are always ok
       return true;
-    case LayoutType::Scalar1D: [[fallthrough]];
-    case LayoutType::Vector1D:
+    case LayoutType::Scalar1D:
       return layout.congruent(get_vertical_layout(midpoints));
+    case LayoutType::Vector1D:
+        return layout.congruent(get_vertical_layout(midpoints,layout.get_vector_dim()));
     case LayoutType::Scalar2D:
       return layout.congruent(get_2d_scalar_layout());
     case LayoutType::Vector2D:
diff --git a/components/eamxx/src/share/io/scorpio_output.cpp b/components/eamxx/src/share/io/scorpio_output.cpp
index e1df325e9f8f..e6661044cd69 100644
--- a/components/eamxx/src/share/io/scorpio_output.cpp
+++ b/components/eamxx/src/share/io/scorpio_output.cpp
@@ -946,7 +946,7 @@ get_var_dimnames (const FieldLayout& layout) const
     auto tag_name = m_io_grid->has_special_tag_name(t)
                   ? m_io_grid->get_special_tag_name(t)
                   : layout.names()[i];
-    if (tag_name=="dim") {
+    if (tag_name=="dim" or tag_name=="bin") {
       tag_name += std::to_string(layout.dim(i));
     }
     dims.push_back(tag_name); // Add dimensions string to vector of dims.