Glaciers are important water sources of rivers in the arid regions of Northwest China. In recent decades, the glacierized area in the inland river basins in Northwest China has shrunk evidently owing to climate change,significantly impacting the water resources in these basins. In this paper,the TM /ETM + (Level 1T) images from 1989 to 2013 were used as the data sources in the Suganhu basin in the Qilian Mountains,and the watershed ratio threshold method combined with GIS technology was taken to extract the glacier boundary data. The change trends of glacierized area and number were analyzed. Furthermore,the response relationships among summer temperature,precipitation in earlier stage (from last September to August) and glacierized area changes in glacier coverage regions,together with meteorological data,were analyzed. The results show that glaciers have retreated continuously since 1989,with a shrinking rate of about -3.01 km~2·a~(-1) and an annual average rate of -0.87%. However,the glacierized area has changed from rapid shrinking to slight shrinking. For example, the glacierized area had retreated sharply before 2000 with a rate of -4.49 km~2·a~(-1),while has gently retreated after 2000 with a rate of -0.09 km~2·a~(-1). Based on the analysis of meteorological data,it is found that the rising of air temperature had been the major controlling factor of the glacier shrinkage in the basin since the 1990s,while the change in glacierized area is not sensitive to the change in precipitation in a short-term. Thus a regression equation may be established between the air temperature averaged over July and August and the glacierized area in the glacier coverage regions.