Abstract: The meteorological characteristics and differences of land and water in east Dongting Lake were analyzed using data of water traffc stations along east Dongting Lake and national stations from 2016 to 2018. The results showed that the seasonal changes of air temperature at the water and land stations were basically same, but the peak and valley of air temperature at the water stations were about 1 hour behind the land stations. The difference of high and low temperature between land and water changed obviously with season. The large value of wind speed at the land stations mainly appeared in April and May, and the water stations also appeared in January and October. The daily variation of wind speed at the land stations was more obvious than that at the water stations. The dominant wind in the water stations was slant South wind in June and July, and was slant north wind in other months. Disaster wind on water was mainly associated with levels 6 and 7 north wind, and relatively less with levels 8 and 9 wind. The frequency of disaster wind was the highest at Leishi Station, and the least at Qinggang Station. The number of days of water heavy fog (haze) was significantly less than that of land, but the number of days of light fog was slightly more than that of land. Water fog (haze) mostly occurred between 03:00 and 11:00 BT, and the probability of fog (haze) was the highest between 07:00 and 08:00 BT.