diff --git a/azure-pipelines.yml b/azure-pipelines.yml
index c7f9de73cf4..90de0705a27 100644
--- a/azure-pipelines.yml
+++ b/azure-pipelines.yml
@@ -18,6 +18,8 @@ jobs:
         conda_env: py36
       py37:
         conda_env: py37
+      py38:
+        conda_env: py38
       py37-upstream-dev:
         conda_env: py37
         upstream_dev: true
diff --git a/ci/requirements/py38.yml b/ci/requirements/py38.yml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..9698e3efecf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ci/requirements/py38.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+name: xarray-tests
+channels:
+  - conda-forge
+dependencies:
+  - python=3.8
+  - pip
+  - pip:
+      - coveralls
+      - dask
+      - distributed
+      - numpy
+      - pandas
+      - pytest
+      - pytest-cov
+      - pytest-env