In order to exactly figure out the climate characteristics and its relationship with soil water content, precipitation and air temperature characteristics were analyzed by using the standardized precipitation index (SPI) and the standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index (SPEI) as well as Mann-Kendall tests based on precipitation and air temperature data from Wuqi synoptic station over the period of 1957—2014, and regression analysis of soil water content was also performed. The results showed that: (1) an obvious difference was existed among annual precipitations, and the seasonal precipitation series had different trends. On the whole, precipitation displayed a decreasing trend with value of 11.17mm/(10a). Compared with precipitation, significantly increasing trend of air temperature was detected at seasonal scale with a rate of 0.01℃/(10a). Significantly changing trends existed in the series of precipitation and air temperature, and the crossing points were 1972 and 1991, respectively. (2) Both SPI and SPEI can accurately reflect the climate characteristics of the study area. In general, wet year alternated with dry year during the period of 1957—2014. The main rainy period was estimated to appear in the 1960s. The occurred chances for wet years and dry years were almost the same, but both of them were far less than normal years. Wuqi county initially exhibited a warming and drying trend, which would be even more serious in future. (3) The relationship between soil water content in 0～1m soil depth on the slopes of different directions and one month scale SPI/SPEI could be stated with a quadratic function which had high fitting accuracy. SPI-1/SPEI-1 must achieve a certain degree then showed positive correlation with soil water content, and different slopes had different required levels. This research showed that both SPI and SPEI were suitable for application in loess region of northern Shaanxi because of the similar analysis results. This method can be applied to other different parts of the climate change research, especially in arid and semi-arid region;the results can provide reference for climate change in loess region of northern Shaanxi, and provide theoretical basis for promoting vegetation restoration artificially.