[Objective] The aim was to analyze temporal and spatial variation charac- teristics of potential evapotranspiration in Guizhou Province. [Method] According to information from 19 meteorological stations of Guizhou Province from 1960 to 2007, with the formulas of optimizational Penman-Monteith and SEBAL net radiation mod- el, the reference crop evapotranspiration ETo was calculated. Also with the spatial interpolation method of Arcgis 9.3, climate tendency rate statistics, K-M test, wavelet analysis and so on, the related regional differentiation and spatial and temporal change characteristics between meteorological factors from each monitoring station and ETo were analyzed. [Result] The results show that the correlation of potential evapotranspiration and meteorological factors in Guizhou Province demonstrates re- gional differentiation; there was no direct connection between the correlation of po- tential evapotranspiration and meteorological factors and the amount of meteorologi- cal factors in the year; there were 3 cycles in potential evapotranspiration, namely, 1 year, 5 years and 10 years, with 3 mutation points, respectively, in 1965, 1984 and 1999, mainly affected by air temperature, precipitation and solar radiation. [Conclusion] The research is of great significance in developing irrigation approach- es, adjusting agricultural structure and ecological construction.
