diff --git a/configure b/configure
index 554e10c9..1e7b9f7a 100755
--- a/configure
+++ b/configure
@@ -529,7 +529,7 @@ int main () {
     return 0;
 }
 EOF
-    if ! TEMP_GPG=$(mktemp -d); then
+    if ! TEMP_GPG=$(mktemp -d "${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/notmuch.XXXXXX"); then
         printf 'No.\nCould not make tempdir for testing session-key support.\n'
         errors=$((errors + 1))
     elif ${CC} ${CFLAGS} ${gmime_cflags} _check_session_keys.c ${gmime_ldflags} -o _check_session_keys \