Drought indicators are of critical importance in characterization and forecasting. The use of the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) has increasingly become the main tool for drought analysis; however, the index lacks hydrological information useful as a proxy for other types of droughts. This study aims at evaluating the SPI against the Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) in the South Central Region of Vietnam. The indices were calculated using monthly rainfall and temperature data measurements from 30 rainfall and 13 temperature stations, during the period from 1977 to 2014. The study focuses on the spatial-temporal variations of drought events and therefore an area of 1680 grid cells of 4x4 km was selected. Inverse distance weighting was used to interpolate grid rainfall and temperature prior to drought indices estimating at multiple time scales (3, 6, 9, and 12 months). Drought severity was classified from gridded SPIs and SPEIs using a Non-Contiguous Drought Area (NCDA) approach. The result indicated that drought characteristics using the SPEI and NCDA can capture better historical drought conditions than that using the SPI and NCDA. This suggests an important role of temperature factor in the degree of drought severity. The analysis of spatial-temporal drought on the SPEI showed that the occurrence of moderate droughts in the study area was 1-2 years, and the highest percentage of drought in the area was observed in the summer-autumn season at all SPEI time scales. The results of this study may extend our understanding of natural drought mechanisms.