Abstract: In this paper, the daily drought indexes in Hebei Province during the period of 1970-2009 were calculated using the compound drought index（C_i） based on the daily precipitation and air temperature data from 72 meteorological stations in the province. C_i was used to monitor and recognize the drought processes occurred in Hebei Province, and the spatiotemporal variation of climate drought was analyzed. The results are as follows: (1) Drought occurred everywhere in Hebei Province in recent 40 years, especially in the central-southern part; (2) Drought frequency was the highest in April and May in all the regions of the province, and autumn drought also occurred frequently; (3) In the mass, there was no obvious increasing or decreasing trend of both annual and seasonal drought days in recent 40 years; (4) Seasonally, drought days were in an obvious decrease trend in spring, an increase trend in summer and autumn, and a slight variation in winter.

Key words: drought, compound drought index, spatiotemporal variation, Hebei Province