Drought acutely affects economic sectors, natural habitats and communities. Understanding the past spatial and temporal patterns of drought is crucial because it facilitates the forecasting of future drought occurrences and informs decision-making processes for possible adaptive measures. This is especially important in view of a changing climate. This study employed the World Meteorological Organization (WMO)-recommended standardized precipitation index (SPI) to investigate the spatial and temporal patterns of drought in Zambia from 1960 to 2016. The relationship between the occurrence of consecutive dry days (CDD; consecutive days with less than 1 mm of precipitation) and SPI was also investigated. Horizontal wind vectors at 850 hPa during the core of the rainy season (December-February) were examined to ascertain the patterns of flow during years of extreme and severe drought; and these were contrasted with the patterns of flow in 2007, which was a generally wet year. Pressure vertical velocity was also investigated. Based on the gamma distribution, SPI successfully categorized extremely dry (with a SPI value less than or equal to-2.0) years over Zambia as

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