Based on the monthly precipitation data of 96 meteorological stations from 1961 to 2015 in the Dongting Lake Basin and monthly mean sea surface temperature (SST) dataset from Met Office Hadley Centre, the temporal and spatial variation and periodic properties of winter precipitation were analyzed with the methods of empirical orthogonal function (EOF), Morlet wavelet and partial correlation analysis. We also discussed the key areas and key periods which influence winter precipitation over Dongting Lake Basin. The result of EOF method showed that there were three leading modes of winter precipitation at inter-annual temporal scales: the mode being consistent over the whole area, the mode of opposite relationship between south Dongting Lake Basin and north Dongting Lake Basin, the mode of opposite relationship between central Dongting Lake Basin and south/north Dongting Lake Basin. Each mode has long periods of 12 a, 16 a, 7 a and short period of 3 a, respectively. With respect to the relationship between winter precipitation over Dongting Lake Basin and global SST, winter precipitation had a good relationship with El Niño-Southern Oscillation and South China Sea SST. On the average, when ENSO is in warm phase or South China Sea SST is higher than normal years, winter precipitation over Dongting Lake Basin is likely to be more. Reversely, winter precipitation over Dongting Lake Basin is likely to be less when ENSO is in cold phase or South China Sea SST is lower than normal years. However, there were distinct differences between the areas and key periods affected by ENSO and South China Sea SST. ENSO mainly affects south Dongting Lake Basin, and it has the best correlation with winter precipitation over Dongting Lake Basin in preceding October. South China Sea mainly affects east Dongting Lake Basin, and South China Sea SST has the best correlation with winter precipitation over Dongting Lake Basin at next Feburary.