Abstract:The climatic statistical characteristics of gale events in northern and southern coastal zones of the Qiongzhou Strait were described using data for stations Xu we n, Haikou, Qiongshan and Lingao from 1977 to 2006. Poten tial mechanisms for the development of gale events were examined. The data were a nalyzed in term of two criteria for a gale event based on sustained winds or a wind gust. During the last 30 years, annual high wind days show different trends in northern and southern coast zones of the Qiongzhou Strait. In the nort hern coast, the re exist obvious periods of 14 years and 2-4 years in the variation of tho se annual high wind days, which is in accordancewith the periods of tropical cyclone’s frequencies influencing Hainan Island. I n the southern coast, annual high wi nd days show a significantly linear decrease trend, the climatic abrupt decrea se periods are in the middle and late 1990s. The accelerated urbanization of cit y and the weakened strength of cold air are the main reason accounting for the decreas e of gale events. There exists a pronounced northeast quadrant directional preferen ce for high winds in the northern coast of the strait, while southerly direc tional preference in southern coast. On the average， high wind events in southern coast are stronger than that in northern one. Contrary to the common climatic char acteristics of gale events in most other parts of China, gale events are most freque nt in summer and rare in winter.