Understanding the patterns of dryness/wetness in the warming context is important for stakeholders to formulate adaptation strategies to minimize the impacts of floods and droughts. Spatial and temporal characteristics of regional temperature, precipitation, potential evapotranspiration (PET) and dryness/wetness variation were investigated for the period from 2015 to 2100 under SSPs-RCPs in Northwest China. Results show that annual mean temperature, precipitation and PET are projected to increase during 2015–2100, with increases higher in the long-term (2081–2100) than the near-term (2021–2040) and mid-term (2041–2060). Increase rate under SSP5–8.5 and SSP3–7.0 will significantly higher than other scenarios. Relative to the reference period (1995–2014), annual SPEI12 is projected to show a decreasing trend during 2015–2100. Trend will decrease highest under SSP5–8.5 scenario whereas the lowest under SSP1–1.9 and SSP1–2.6 scenarios. The state of drought in Northwest China is near normal during the reference period, drought will significantly escalate and moderate and severe drought will dominate the most of Northwest China with the increase of radiative forcing under SSPs-RCPs during 2015–2100. SSP5–8.5 will have the largest drought area than other scenarios. Observation shows Northwest China characterized a warmer and humid trend during 1961–2014, while GCMs projected that Northwest China will experience significant dryness trend during 2015–2100 under SSPs-RCPs, and SSP3–7.0, SSP4–3.4, SSP4–6.0 and SSP5–8.5 scenarios will be much drier than SSP1–1.9, SSP1–2.6 and SSP2–4.5 scenarios.