Since the beginning of the 21 st century,frequent extreme weather events have occurred under a background of global climate change.This pattern reflects that the characteristics of climate change and drought and floods are one of the most serious disaster impacts on human beings.Exploring the relationship between climate change and drought/flood disasters using climate change performance characteristics has become a prime research issue.Drought/flood events have frequently taken place in northern Xinjiang,however, few studies have concerned drought and flood assessment in this area.The characteristics of drought and flood in northern Xinjiang was analyzed based on monthly precipitation data of 23 meteorological stations from 1961 to 2012 by means of different scales of standard precipitation index,combining with trend analysis,GIS spatial analysis techniques,EOF and REOF method.The results showed that there was a significantly humid trend in northern Xinjiang over the past 52 years.The frequency of drought decreased continuously during that period and specially presented the more frequency of flood from 1961 to 1980,whereas the frequency of flood continuously increased during that period and specially presented the more frequency of flood from 1981 to 2012.There were three types of spatial distribution of drought and flood in this area,which were divided into three regions:northern area(precipitation comfort zone),eastern area(extreme arid area),western area(arid area)and mid-area (waterlogging area).Similarly,Shehezi,Tuoli and Kelamayi regions are located at the center of Xinjiang and tend to be waterlogging all the year,Qinghe,Beitashan and Qitai regions are located in the eastern areas which were easy to be dry.