diff --git a/configure b/configure
index d723b8e2a6..56a0b657a9 100755
--- a/configure
+++ b/configure
@@ -5623,7 +5623,7 @@ check_header asm/types.h
 # it seems there are versions of clang in some distros that try to use the
 # gcc headers, which explodes for stdatomic
 # so we also check that atomics actually work here
-check_builtin stdatomic_h stdatomic.h "atomic_int foo; atomic_store(&foo, 0)"
+check_builtin stdatomic_h stdatomic.h "atomic_int foo, bar = ATOMIC_VAR_INIT(-1); atomic_store(&foo, 0)"
 
 check_lib2 "windows.h shellapi.h" CommandLineToArgvW -lshell32
 check_lib2 "windows.h wincrypt.h" CryptGenRandom -ladvapi32