diff --git a/src/backend/distributed/commands/create_distributed_table.c b/src/backend/distributed/commands/create_distributed_table.c
index 92528b6c9..ca043acaf 100644
--- a/src/backend/distributed/commands/create_distributed_table.c
+++ b/src/backend/distributed/commands/create_distributed_table.c
@@ -126,6 +126,7 @@ static void DoCopyFromLocalTableIntoShards(Relation distributedRelation,
 										   DestReceiver *copyDest,
 										   TupleTableSlot *slot,
 										   EState *estate);
+static void ErrorIfTemporaryTable(Oid relationId);
 
 /* exports for SQL callable functions */
 PG_FUNCTION_INFO_V1(master_create_distributed_table);
@@ -329,6 +330,7 @@ EnsureCitusTableCanBeCreated(Oid relationOid)
 	EnsureCoordinator();
 	EnsureRelationExists(relationOid);
 	EnsureTableOwner(relationOid);
+	ErrorIfTemporaryTable(relationOid);
 
 	/*
 	 * We should do this check here since the codes in the following lines rely
@@ -1166,6 +1168,20 @@ EnsureRelationCanBeDistributed(Oid relationId, Var *distributionColumn,
 }
 
 
+/*
+ * ErrorIfTemporaryTable errors out if the given table is a temporary table.
+ */
+static void
+ErrorIfTemporaryTable(Oid relationId)
+{
+	if (get_rel_persistence(relationId) == RELPERSISTENCE_TEMP)
+	{
+		ereport(ERROR, (errcode(ERRCODE_FEATURE_NOT_SUPPORTED),
+						errmsg("cannot distribute a temporary table")));
+	}
+}
+
+
 /*
  * ErrorIfTableIsACatalogTable is a helper function to error out for citus
  * table creation from a catalog table.
diff --git a/src/test/regress/expected/multi_create_table.out b/src/test/regress/expected/multi_create_table.out
index dddef65eb..2f28b3fda 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/expected/multi_create_table.out
+++ b/src/test/regress/expected/multi_create_table.out
@@ -406,4 +406,11 @@ SELECT shardcount FROM pg_dist_colocation WHERE colocationid IN
          13
 (1 row)
 
+CREATE TEMP TABLE temp_table(a int);
+-- make sure temp table cannot be distributed and we give a good error
+select create_distributed_table('temp_table', 'a');
+ERROR:  cannot distribute a temporary table
+select create_reference_table('temp_table');
+ERROR:  cannot distribute a temporary table
+DROP TABLE temp_table;
 DROP TABLE shard_count_table_3;
diff --git a/src/test/regress/sql/multi_create_table.sql b/src/test/regress/sql/multi_create_table.sql
index b347987eb..48210a187 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/sql/multi_create_table.sql
+++ b/src/test/regress/sql/multi_create_table.sql
@@ -265,4 +265,10 @@ SELECT shardcount FROM pg_dist_colocation WHERE colocationid IN
 	SELECT colocation_id FROM citus_tables WHERE table_name = 'shard_count_table_3'::regclass
 );
 
+CREATE TEMP TABLE temp_table(a int);
+-- make sure temp table cannot be distributed and we give a good error
+select create_distributed_table('temp_table', 'a');
+select create_reference_table('temp_table');
+DROP TABLE temp_table;
+
 DROP TABLE shard_count_table_3;