Dear oleson. Sorry for the late response.I meet another problem. I checked the result from unstable case(Run_type =hybrid before I mentioned) and the result from the other case(Run_type=startup). I find both result is same.Another thing to check would be the atmospheric forcing streams and atm logs in the two hybrid cases (which are the one with the surfdat modification and the case without any modification, if I understand correctly) to make sure they are the same. Also, examine the differences in landcover between the two cases for that particular location you've plotted and post the results here.
As you can see the result
(The result from RUN_TYPE = hybrid)
(The result from RUN_TYPE = startup)
The sufdata modification is here:
The red line is the modfication of RUN_TYPE = hybrid and the Blue is RUN_TYPR = startup