Abstract:Based on the meteorological data of the 105 stations in Northwestern China from 1961 to 2011, the climate change and corresponding response characteristics of wind speed were analyzed by using the methods of linear regression, the Mann-Kendall mutation test. The results showed that the temperature has been rising obviously in Northwestern China in the 51 years and the temperature variation exhibited three periods: the decline period, rising period, and slow rise period; Moreover, the spatial differences of the warming trends were significant. The precipitation showed a decrease trend which experienced remarkable change, stable, and accelerated fluctuations. Meanwhile, the change of the precipitation had an obvious difference between east area and west area. On the whole, the east of the Northwestern China showed a warming and drying trend, the west and the central region presented a trend of relatively warming and wetting. The average wind speed declined at 0.11 m/s per 10 a which increased until 1974, then decreased significantly, and became stable from 1993 to 2011. In addition, the wind speed exhibited spatial differences among the southeastern, western and central of Northwestern China. Furthermore, there was a significant negative correlation between temperature and wind speed.