We present the impact tests that preceeded the most recent operational upgrades to the land-surface model used in the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP)mesoscale Eta model whose operational domain includes North America. These improvements consist of changes to the 'Noah' land-surface model (LSM) physics, most notable in the area of cold season processes(winter and early spring), the addition of certain surface fields used in model initialization, and finally to the verification syste ms used to assess model performance. Results indicate improved performance in forecasting low-level temperature and humidity, with improvements to (or without affecting) the overall performance of the Eta model quantative precipitation scores and upper-air verification statistics. Remaining issues that directly affect the Noah LSM performance in the Eta model include non-land-surface physical parameterizations, i.e. radiation and clouds which affect the amount of available energy at the surface, and stable boundary layer and surface layer processes which affect surface turbulent heat fluxes and ultimately the surface energy budget. Noah model development has been sponsored as part of the GCIP (and now GAPP) Core Project by the NOAA Office of Global Programs.