The atmospheric boundary layer flow downstream of an abrupt rough-to-smooth surface roughness transition is studied using large eddy simulations (LES) for a range of surface roughness ratios. Standard wall models assume horizontal homogeneity and are inapplicable for heterogeneous surfaces. Two heterogeneous-surface wall models are evaluated, one based on a local application of similarity theory using a twice-filtered velocity field (BZ model) and another based on a local friction-velocity obtained by blending the upstream and downstream profiles (APA model). The wall shear stress and the turbulence intensity (TI) are sensitive to the wall model while the mean streamwise velocity and the total shear stress (TSS) are less sensitive. The APA model is more accurate than the BZ model on comparison to previous experiments. The wall shear stress obtained using the APA wall model is sensitive to the ratio of the equilibrium and the internal boundary layer (IBL) heights, while other statistics are not. The IBL height is insensitive to the turbulent quantity (TSS or TI) on which it is based. Several analytical relations for the IBL height are evaluated using the LES data. Two models are found to be accurate for different roughness ratios while one model is reasonable over the full range investigated. A phenomenological model is developed for the TI downstream of the roughness jump using a weighted average of the upstream and far-downstream profiles. The model yields reasonable predictions for all roughness ratios investigated. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V.