Abstract: Exploring the temporal and spatial variations of precipitation and drought is an important topic in hydro-logy. Based on the precipitation data of 619 meteorological stations in China from 1951 to 2018, we used anomaly percentage method and Morlet wavelet analysis to analyze the temporal and spatial variations of annual precipitation and drought. The results showed that annual precipitation in China showed a stepwise decreasing trend from southeast to northwest during the study period, and that the intensity of annual precipitation change was on the contrary. The precipitation near the boundary of the second and third steps showed a downward trend, and the abrupt change of precipitation occurred mainly in the 1960s and 1970s. The rest region was on the rise, with substantial changes in the 1990s. The main period of precipitation was short in the regions with temperate continental climate and temperate monsoon climate. From 1960s to 2010s, the area of arid land in China had decreased, while that of the semi-arid area and semi-humid area had increased gradually, especially in the recent decade. An aridity boundary was found between 30° N and 40° N, with drought frequency in its north being much more than the south. On the whole, the frequency and scope of drought events showed a decreasing trend and its interdecadal shift direction was from the central part of northwest China to the southern part of North China and then to the northern part of North China.

Key words: precipitation, drought, temporal and spatial variability, China