To investigate the impact of climate change on surface dry-wet status in northeast China, aridity index in three provinces of Helongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning was calculated from 1960 to 2005 on the basis of meteorological datasets in 72 stations. The aridity index was defined as a ratio of potential-evapotranspiration to precipitation. Potential-evapotranspiration was computed by using Penman-Monteith model. Upscaling was completed by Kriging interpolation to address the spatial characters of aridity index. Results indicated that there was a variation in the dry-wet status with significant spatiotemporal characteristics in this region. Higher values of the aridity index occurred in the period from 1960 to 1979 and increased generally. The increase in the aridity index was attributed to a reduction in precipitation and an increase in potential-evapotranspiration that was induced by an augment in vapor pressure difference. By contrast, the surface in most of this region, particularly in Heilongjiang Province and the east part of Jilin Province, tended to be wetting during the period from 1980 to 2005 due to an increase in precipitation and a reduction in potential-evapotranspiration. The reduction in potential-evapotranspiration can be explained by a decline of wind speed and net radiation. As a whole, climate change did not aggravate surface aridity in three provinces of northeast China over the last several decades.