Daily precipitation of April,May and June during the period 1958—2004 from 61 observational stations is applied to study drought/flood characteristics of the pre-flood season in South China with statistic methods.Results show that 12 flood years and 12 drought years occurred in 1958—2004,with severe flood/drought years mainly in the late 1950s—the middle 1970s and after the 1990s;and the interannal period of 2—4 years was most remarkable in the flood/drought variations of the pre-flood season.The interdecadal character of the flood/drought variations for April and May was consistent,while the interdecadal variations for May and July showed an out of phase relation.South China can be geographically divided into five flood/drought anomaly sub-areas,and in the past 46 years,the pre-flood season climate showed an evolution trend of drought-flood-drought in southern Guangxi,western Guangdong,and the southeast coast region,a trend of drought-flood in northern Guangxi,and a trend of flood-drought in the northeast part of South China.