Yunnan is located in southwest China,has various climates,and temperatures in this province have recently increased significantly. Extreme temperature events in Yunnan are of great importance to preventing natural disasters. Here we examine data from 1960 to 2011 regarding daily maximum and minimum temperature across 31 observational stations. We selected eight indices of extreme temperature from the Expert Team on Climate Change Detection and Indices (WMO) and looked at the characteristics of extreme temperature events,including temporal-spatial distribution,breakpoint test,periodic change and trends prediction using Inverse Distance Weighted interpolation methods,Mann-Kendall abrupt change test,variance analysis extrapolation method and superposition trend modeling. We found that cold indices (cool days,cool nights,cold spell duration indicator and frost days) have been decreasing and the tendency rates are -0.36,-1.73,-0.61 and -1.91d/10a,respectively. Warm indices(warm days,warm nights,warm spell duration indicator and summer days)are increasing with tendency rates of 2.11,3.83,3.65 and 3.89 d/10a,respectively. Spatial analysis showed that the trend in cold indices is increasing gradually from east to west and south to north,and the trend in warm indices is increasing gradually from northeast to southwest. The warm nights index,cold spell duration indicator,warm spell duration indicator,cool nights,cool days,warm days,frost days and summer days breakpoints were in 1966,1997,1987,1997,2002,1989 and 2002,respectively,and a main period of 15,11,7,15,5,3 and 3 years,respectively. Simulation results show that each index has a fluctuant trend and is consistent with the original sequence.