The Community Land Model is the land component of the Community Earth System Model (CESM). In this presentation, we will describe a comprehensive suite of recent improvements to the representation of water cycle processes in CLM that have been developed in collaboration with the research community that utilizes CLM. Results from a set of offline simulations comparing several versions of CLM will be presented and compared against observed data for runoff, river discharge, soil moisture, and total water storage to assess the performance of the new model. In particular, we will demonstrate how comparisons to GRACE and FLUXNET-MTE evapotranspiration data contributed to the identification and correction of problems in the model. The new model, CLM5 will be incorporated in CESM2 and provides the basis for improved large-scale modeling and study of energy, water, and biogeochemical (carbon and nitrogen) cycles. Opportunities for further improvement and the CUAHSI – CLM partnership will also be discussed.