Cold vortex is firstly defined in this paper. And then 65 cold vortexes are identified from April to September of 2009-2013 based on the definition. Their spatiotemporal distributions are studied. The monthly variation of cold vortexes is obvious, and the most of them occur in July, mainly from the east of Lake Baikal and Mongolia to the northwest of Northeast China. Most cold vortexes live for more than 3 days. Hourly rainfall data of automatic weather station are used to analyze the characteristics of the severe shorttime precipitation under the background of cold vortex and its relations with cold vortex. The results show that severe shorttime precipitation accompanying cold vortex mainly occurs in the southeast of Hebei, Beijing, Tianjin and the Northeast Plain in July. Besides, such events are often seen from afternoon to evening. Severe shorttime precipitation can occur in any phases of cold vortexes, mainly during the developing phases. Besides, it is located mainly in the southeast and southwest of vortex center. And the distribution of severe shorttime precipitation is different in different cold vortexes.