Abstract: The cold and warm nights, warm and cold days were defined as the respective temperature distributions exceed (or fall below) the 90th (10th) percentile of the probability density function, based on the daily maximum and minimum temperature data in Xinyang during 1951-2015. Subsequently, the temporal characteristics of these extreme temperature events as well as their responsiveness to climate change were also calculated by using statistical methods. The main conclusions are as follows:(1) during the past 65 years, annual mean temperature of Xinyang shows a significantly warming trend, with the linear trend amounting to 2.0℃/100 a; (2) the cold nights indicate a significantly decreasing trend while the warm nights experience an obviously increasing trend. The linear trends were -4.4 d/10 a and 8.3 d/10 a, respectively, and both surpass 0.001 significance level. The warm days show a significantly decreasing trend first, followed which by a strongly rising trend during the past 65 years. The linear trend over the 1951-1981 period is -11.6 d/10 a, while the trend for the 1982-2015 period is 13.7 d/10 a. However, cold days during the past 65 years present no linear trends but with strongly decadal variability; (3) it is concluded that the responsiveness of temperature events to climate change is asymmetrical. The cold nights and cold days can be expected to decrease by 18.7 d and 12.5 d, while warm nights and warm days to increase by 26.9 d and 18.3 d, with annual mean temperatures increases by 1℃.