Based on the daily meteorological data and single-season rice planting area data in Anhui Province from 1970 to 2014, 19 extreme climate indices (ECI) were calculated for the seedling-harvesting stage and transplanting stage. The correlation between ECI and the fluctuation of single-season rice planting area was discussed, and the temporal variation characteristics of key indices were analyzed. The results showed that the distribution of precipitation and temperature was ‘less in the north and more in the south’, and the temperature was characterized by ‘high in the north and low in the middle’, respectively, which could be divided into five sub-regions. The fluctuation of planting area was mainly related to the extreme climate in the seedling-harvesting stage, and most of the area was positively correlated with summer days (SU) and continuous days without rain (CDD), and negatively correlated with precipitation days (DR) in most regions. The change trend of key ECI was generally in favor of single-season rice planting, in which SU and CDD showed a significant increase trend and DR showed a significant decrease trend in the whole seedling stubble stage, and the future trends were sustainable. The anomaly of DR showed a fluctuation characteristic of ‘up-down-up-down-up’, and abrupt change in the late 1970s and mid-1990s, and a 2-4 year periodic oscillations throughout the whole study period. It was revealed that low temperature and rainy day during the stage of single-season rice seedling and regional drought during the stage of ransplanting were the main climatic factors leading to the negative fluctuation of single-season rice planting area in Anhui province.