diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index e20c2faee6..ac3fbc19de 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -44,7 +44,7 @@ test-cov: clean
 test-ci:
 	make lint
 	NODE_ENV=test make bootstrap
-	./node_modules/.bin/flow check
+	node scripts/run-flow-check.js
 	./scripts/test-cov.sh
 	cat ./coverage/coverage.json | ./node_modules/codecov.io/bin/codecov.io.js
 
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index 013c21e8ff..26383bf313 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@
     "babel": "5.8.21",
     "babel-eslint": "^4.1.8",
     "babel-plugin-flow-comments": "^1.0.9",
+    "bin-version-check": "^2.1.0",
     "browserify": "^11.2.0",
     "bundle-collapser": "^1.2.1",
     "chai": "^2.2.0",
diff --git a/scripts/run-flow-check.js b/scripts/run-flow-check.js
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..af0db68043
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/run-flow-check.js
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+'use strict';
+
+var binVersionCheck = require("bin-version-check");
+var child = require("child_process");
+
+// run in npm 3+ only
+binVersionCheck("npm", ">=3.3.0", function (err) {
+  if (!err) {
+    console.log("Running ./node_modules/.bin/flow check");
+    var cmd = child.spawn("./node_modules/.bin/flow", ["check"], { stdio: "inherit" });
+    cmd.on("exit", function(code) {
+      console.log(code);
+    });
+  }
+});