Abstract:By using the daily mean temperature and precipitation data from 60 observation stations in Southwest China from 1961 to 2011, the half-year scale meteorological drought index values, including Palmer drought index, standardized rainfall drought index, Z index and precipitation anomalies percentage, are collected. Methods of lead correlation, similarity and skill score are adopted to detect the most suitable meteorological drought index related to the agricultural disasters in Southwest China, based on which, the possible risk distribution of agricultural drought disasters in Southwest China is obtained. The results show that the meteorological drought in winter half-year defined by Z index is much more indicative on the agricultural drought in Southwest China than the other three kinds of meteorological drought indexes; when Z index in winter half year is ≤-0.84, its raising risks of the >8% agricultural drought disaster rate and the >5% agricultural drought crop failure rate amount to 0.53 and 0.37, respectively, and the highest risk area is in the Northwest Guizhou. The conclusion not only help to know the connection between the meteorological drought index and agricultural drought disaster thoroughly, but has certain application value in the detection and prediction of agricultural drought in Southwest China.