Abstract:Based on the precipitation data of 160 stations in China during the period from January 1951 through October 2007, the entire drought process in 2003 in southern China was monitored by using the standardized precipitation index (SPI). It was found that the consecutive drought in summer, autumn and winter occurred in the eastern region of southwest China where drought was the most serious in winter, and the southern part of south China where the drought was the most severe in spring during the period from December 2002 to May 2003. Water deficit occurred month by month since the beginning of summer in the large areas of south China. In addition, the extreme water shortage took place in July, August and October in large areas. From June to December 2003, the consecutive drought in summer, autumn and winter affected large areas in the south of the Yangtze River, while the consecutive flood occurred in the north of the Yangtze River. “Drought in the south and flood in the north” was the typical pattern from March 2003 to February 2004. Based on multi-scale SPI analysis, the consecutive drought events during the period 1951—2007 in south China was investigated in detail.The events of consecutive drought in summer, autumn and winter occurred three times before 1980s, namely in 1956, 1967 and 1978, and only one time in 2003 after 1980s. However, the intensities of the droughts in these four years were increasing year by year.