Some primary physical relationships related to the surface climate and atmospheric boundary layer were examined over East Antarctica and evaluated in the regional climate model HIRHAM for 2005–2008. For stable conditions, the observation-derived relationship between wind-scaled sensible heat flux and air-surface temperature difference distinctively differs between different surface flux parameterizations. Some of them decrease the heat transfer coefficient CH for strongly stable conditions, while others, such as the Louis scheme, do not. However, HIRHAM’s application of the Louis parameterization produces small CH for strongly stable conditions similar to observations and other schemes, likely because a surface roughness much larger than observed is used and the bulk Richardson number differs. For Zhongshan, the observed radiation-cloud, temperature-cloud, and temperature-wind relationships are reproduced in the model, though quantitative differences are evident. An observed longwave warming effect of clouds is larger in the model, while the reduction of downwelling shortwave radiation by clouds is twice as large in the model. The model partially reproduces an observed weak wind regime associated with atmospheric decoupling, but fails to reproduce increasing temperatures with increasing winds. The quantitative differences in the radiation-cloud relationship suggest that errors in cloud characteristics produce a significant deficiency in downwelling net radiation for clear and cloudy conditions. This deficiency is the likely cause of HIRHAM’s strong cold bias in the surface temperature and positive bias in near-surface stability. The sensible heat flux analyses and a sensitivity test suggest that errors in the sensible heat flux relationship are not the primary cause.