Abstract: The paper aims to reveal the characteristics of maize cold damage and its relationship with yield, and provide meteorological references for maize production and planting structure adjustment. Based on the observation data from 15 agro-meteorological stations from 1980 to 2014, by using the active accumulated temperature anomaly ≥10℃ index, the authors estimated the occurrence of maize cold damage during seedling emergence to seven leaves period, seedling emergence to tasseling period, and seedling emergence to milky maturity period, and analyzed the temporal and spatial evolution characteristics of cold damage, and built the relationship between active accumulated temperature anomaly ≥10℃ and maize yield. The results showed that: (1) the sum of maize cold damage year was from 7 to 17 in the 3 critical development periods during 1980-2014, the frequency of cold damage year decreased and the occurrence of cold damage was consistent with climate warming trend; the frequency of cold damage year in north was higher than that in south, and the occurrence of cold damage showed the clustering, regional and local characteristics; (2) in the study period, the cycle of active accumulated temperature anomaly ≥10℃ was about 16 years in a large scale, and the temperature was low before 1995 and it was warming after 1995; (3) in the 3 development periods, correlation between active accumulated temperature anomaly ≥10℃ and maize yield was significant or extremely significant in 13%, 60% and 67% agricultural meteorological stations respectively, active accumulated temperature anomaly ≥10℃ was 100-200℃·d, which was favorable to maize yield; the seedling emergence to milky maturity period was the most suitable stage for analyzing the relationship between active accumulated temperature anomaly ≥10℃ and maize yield; (4) active accumulated temperature anomaly ≥10℃ indicated the biological and agricultural meaning of maize cold damage index and improved the objectivity of maize cold damage assessing.