Under the background of global climate change, the occurrence of extreme climate events is becoming more and more frequent. Drought has become one of the most extensive and far-reaching disasters in the world. Drought is an objective natural phenomenon. In the past, researches on drought mainly focused on two aspects: one is the relationship between climate and drought; the other is the impact of drought on crops. The effects of drought on crops are shown in various aspects. In this paper, the effects of drought on summer maize roots and the main techniques and methods of root research were reviewed. In the results, previous studies mainly focused on the growth and development of summer maize, as well as the configuration, physiology and internal anatomical structure of root system, but the explanation of mechanism was relatively less. In addition, the effect of drought on the root system of summer maize was not completely damage, but also had compensation effect under certain water conditions. The future research is also prospected.