Exploring the regional characteristics and response mechanisms of extreme precipitation within the context of climate change is critically important for regional flood control, drought relief, and climate disaster prevention. Utilizing daily precipitation data from 86 national meteorological stations in the Yellow River Basin, eight extreme precipitation indices were selected for analysis. Various methods including trend and mutation tests, continuous wavelet transform, Kriging interpolation, Pearson correlation analysis, cross wavelet transform, and wavelet coherence analysis were selected to thoroughly show the spatiotemporal variation characteristics of extreme precipitation in the Yellow River Basin and the impact of atmospheric circulation on these extreme precipitation events. The results indicate that: (1) Extreme precipitation index including CWD, PRCPTOT, R10, R20, RX1day, RX5day and SDII exhibited a decreasing trend from 1960s to 1980s, and an increasing trend from the middle and late 1990s to 2010s. The mutation years of CDD, CWD, RX1day, RX5day and SDII were concentrated in the late 1980s and early 1990s. (2) CDD decreased from northwest to Southeast, CWD increased from southwest to northeast, and PRCPTOT, R10, R20, RX1day, RX5day and SDII increased from northwest to Southeast. Significant increases in PRCPTOT, R10, R20, and SDII were observed only in certain areas within the headwater region of the Yellow River Basin and the Huangshui—Taohe River system. (3) Each extreme precipitation index and the multivariable El Nino Southern Oscillation Index (Mei) in the atmospheric circulation factors mainly have a short period scale resonance period. PRCPTOT, R10, R20, RX1day, RX5day and SDII have a leading change relationship to the Mei.