The study was aimed to detect and characterize meteorological drought risk areas using remote sensing data in North Wollo, Ethiopia. Climate Hazards Group InfraRed Precipitation with Stations (CHIRPS) rainfall estimate was used to compute Z-Score Index (ZSI) and depict droughts during the meher season (2000 – 2019). MOD13Q1 from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) image datasets was also used to generate Land Surface Temperature (LST) to investigate its association and trend with ZSI and the precipitation. To analyze the seasonal and annual rainfall trend, Mann-Kendal (MK) test was applied, and Sen’s slope estimator was used to fix the magnitude of change. The MK test result revealed that an increasing trend of total annual rainfall (1.2 – 10.7 mm year-1) has been observed in many districts, while the kiremt season showed a decreasing trend (-0.43 to -3.85 mm year-1). However, the belg (0.05 – 0.23 mm), and bega (0.54 – 2.80 mm) seasons revealed a slightly increasing trend in some districts. The ZSI value revealed that 2002, 2004, 2009, 2011, 2014, 2015, and 2019 were characterized by a rainfall deficit resulting in droughts. Though the spatial extent and intensity level varies, there has been drought incidence in the area each year. However, 2009 and 2015 were the driest years with Z-score intensity of -2.01 to -2.84. Based on the regression and correlation result, ZSI has positive significant relationship (r = 0.93 – 0.99) with precipitation, and negative (r = -0.1 to -0.52) with LST. Thus, ZSI showed a significant increasing trend with rising precipitation and decreasing with LST. In the last 20 years, each district of the area encountered a rainfall deficit repeatedly (15 – 18 times), so that the area is categorized as an extremely high meteorological drought risk zone. Such spatiotemporal meteorological drought risk events have an imminent threat to the rainfed agricultural activities imposing immense influence on agro-based livelihoods of the local community. Therefore, it demands continuous drought monitoring and application of effective early warning systems.