Abstract:Based on the summer daily maximum temperature data, soil moisture observation data of every ten days and soil moisture reanalysis data, the temporal and spatial distribution characteristics of the occurrence of heat waves and its relationship with soil moisture in North-East China were analyzed. Results show that in 1960s and 1990-2010 heat waves occurred frequently, while 1970s-1980s was the low occurrence period. The rotated empirical orthogonal function(REOF) was used to obtain three soil moisture climate zones. Within each region, soil moisture in early(March-May) and corresponding period(June-July) were negatively correlated with heat wave occurrence in June and July, and more significant correlations existed in the corresponding period. In the northeastern and central North-East China, the average soil moisture in late May was significantly related with heat wave occurrence number in June, the average soil moisture in early and mid-June depended remarkably on heat waves occurrence number in June, and the same as in July.