Abstract:The spatiotemporal variability of monthly precipitation and its lag correlation with AO and NAO from 1960 to 2012 in Yangtze River Basin are analyzed by applying the rotated empirical orthogonal function(REOF) and cross wavelet transform. The results are as follows:(1) The local characteristics of the anomalous distribution of monthly precipitation in the Yangtze River Basin are obvious. It can be divided into four main spatial anomalies:the plain of Hubei and Hunan type, southeast hill type and southwest type and north type; (2) The cumulative contribution rate of the four major spatial anomalies is 45.8%. REOF1 (18.9%) reveals that the positive anomaly area of this mode is located in Wushan and the plain of Hubei and Hunan, the southeast hilly area is the positive value center of the second mode REOF2 (12.3%), REOF3 (8.9%) highlights the northern Yunnan Guizhou Plateau and the southern Sichuan Basin as the positive anomaly area of this mode, and the negative center of the fourth mode REOF4 (5.7%) is located in the northern part of Sichuan Basin and areas to its north. The variation ranges of the four modes' time coefficients are large, and their phases all show irregular positive-negative alternations, indicating complicated temporal evolution characteristics in different precipitation anomaly zones. (3) Each mode shows significant correlation with both AO and NAO at certain time scales. Monthly precipitation in Wushan, the plain of Hubei and Hunan, the northern part of Sichuan Basin and regions to its north all show timely responses towards AO, while the optimum response time of monthly precipitation in the southeast hilly area towards AO and NAO are both longer.