Abstract Our understanding of climate impacts and adaptations on crop growth and productivity can be accelerated by analyzing historical data over the past few decades. We used crop trial and climate data from 1981 to 2009 at 34 national agro-meteorological stations in the Huang-Huai-Hai Plain (HHHP) of China to investigate the impacts of climate factors during different growth stages on the growth and yields of winter wheat, accounting for the adaptations such as shifts in sowing dates, cultivars, and agronomic management. Maximum (Tmax) and minimum temperature (Tmin) during the growth period of winter wheat increased significantly, by 0.4 and 0.6 °C/decade, respectively, from 1981 to 2009, while solar radiation decreased significantly by 0.2 MJ/m2/day and precipitation did not change significantly. The trends in climate shifted wheat phenology significantly at 21 stations and affected wheat yields significantly at five stations. The impacts of Tmax and Tmin differed in different growth stages of winter wheat. Across the stations, during 1981–2009, wheat yields increased on average by 14.5% with increasing trends in Tmin over the whole growth period, which reduced frost damage, however, decreased by 3.0% with the decreasing trends in solar radiation. Trends in Tmax and precipitation had comparatively smaller impacts on wheat yields. From 1981 to 2009, climate trends were associated with a ≤ 30% (or ≤1.0% per year) wheat yield increase at 23 stations in eastern and southern parts of HHHP; however with a ≤ 30% (or ≤1.0% per year) reduction at 11 other stations, mainly in western part of HHHP. We also found that wheat reproductive growth duration increased due to shifts in cultivars and flowering date, and the duration was significantly and positively correlated with wheat yield. This study highlights the different impacts of Tmax and Tmin in different growth stages of winter wheat, as well as the importance of management (e.g. shift of sowing date) and cultivars shift in adapting to climate change in the major wheat production region.