diff --git a/CITATION.cff b/CITATION.cff
index e4ad8009d..3c0a6de38 100644
--- a/CITATION.cff
+++ b/CITATION.cff
@@ -45,5 +45,5 @@ keywords:
   - climatology
   - climate variability
 license: BSD-3-Clause
-version: '3.8'
-date-released: '2024-12-04'
+version: '3.8.1'
+date-released: '2025-01-06'
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index def2a5d3b..b35bc15f1 100755
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -121,6 +121,7 @@ Release Notes and History
 
 | <div style="width:300%">[Versions]</div> | Update summary   |
 | ------------- | ------------------------------------- |
+| [v3.8.1]      | Technical update with new figure (modes of variability multi-panel plot)
 | [v3.8]        | New capability (**figure generation for ENSO**, xCDAT migration completed for **Monsoon Wang** with figure generation), major dependency update (`numpy` >= 2.0)
 | [v3.7.2]      | Technical update
 | [v3.7.1]      | Technical update with documentation improvements
@@ -172,6 +173,7 @@ Release Notes and History
 </details>
 
 [Versions]: https://github.com/PCMDI/pcmdi_metrics/releases
+[v3.8.1]: https://github.com/PCMDI/pcmdi_metrics/releases/tag/v3.8.1
 [v3.8]: https://github.com/PCMDI/pcmdi_metrics/releases/tag/v3.8
 [v3.7.2]: https://github.com/PCMDI/pcmdi_metrics/releases/tag/v3.7.2
 [v3.7.1]: https://github.com/PCMDI/pcmdi_metrics/releases/tag/v3.7.1
diff --git a/pcmdi_metrics/_version.py b/pcmdi_metrics/_version.py
index 4c9dba566..e4e78c0b9 100644
--- a/pcmdi_metrics/_version.py
+++ b/pcmdi_metrics/_version.py
@@ -1 +1 @@
-__version__ = "3.8"
+__version__ = "3.8.1"