diff --git a/src/analyses/base.ml b/src/analyses/base.ml
index e83a352df3..7b87d3ff51 100644
--- a/src/analyses/base.ml
+++ b/src/analyses/base.ml
@@ -761,7 +761,8 @@ struct
         (match str with Some x -> M.tracel "casto" "CInt (%s, %a, %s)\n" (Z.to_string num) d_ikind ikind x | None -> ());
         Int (ID.cast_to ikind (IntDomain.of_const (num,ikind,str)))
       | Const (CReal (_,fkind, Some str)) when not (Cilfacade.isComplexFKind fkind) -> Float (FD.of_string fkind str) (* prefer parsing from string due to higher precision *)
-      | Const (CReal (num, fkind, None)) when not (Cilfacade.isComplexFKind fkind) -> assert false (* Cil does nor create CReal without string representation *)
+      | Const (CReal (num, fkind, None)) when not (Cilfacade.isComplexFKind fkind) && num = 0.0 -> Float (FD.of_const fkind num) (* constant 0 is ok, CIL creates these for zero-initializers; it is safe across float types *)
+      | Const (CReal (_, fkind, None)) when not (Cilfacade.isComplexFKind fkind) ->  assert false (* Cil does not create other CReal without string representation *)
       (* String literals *)
       | Const (CStr (x,_)) -> Address (AD.of_string x) (* normal 8-bit strings, type: char* *)
       | Const (CWStr (xs,_) as c) -> (* wide character strings, type: wchar_t* *)