The North China region is one of the most important grains productions regions in China, and climatic drought is the primary natural disaster affecting agricultural production, always resulting in immense lose for the agriculture. Hence, exploring the spatiotemporal evolution and formation mechanism of drought in North China is an important basis for a quantitative understanding of drought mechanisms as well as the scientific prevention and control of drought disaster risk, insuring regional and even national food security. Using the Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI-3) and large-scale circulation data, this study systematically investigated spatial variation patterns of drought events during the growth period of winter wheat and their potential influencing factors by integrating run length theory, cluster analysis, and wavelet transform coherence methods. Results show that the climate during the winter wheat growth period in North China (1961-2021) became increasingly moist, particularly from the booting to the maturity stages, Significant spatial differences in dry and wet conditions were observed, with increasing humidification in Hebei, Henan, and Shandong provinces, and a drying trend in Shanxi Province. Henan Province and surrounding areas experienced more frequent but shorter-duration droughts, whereas the opposite pattern was observed in Hebei Province and northern Shandong Province. Spatial clustering patterns of drought events varied across individual growth stages. SPEI-3 was strongly corelated with atmospheric circulation indices throughout the winter wheat growth cycle, including the emergence-tillering, overwintering-jointing, and booting-maturity stages, with TNA, PNA, AO, and NINO34 identified as key influencing factors. The results of this study could provide regional specific valuable insights for agricultural drought resistance and disaster reduction decision-making in North China.