To study the thermal environment characteristic of the riverside residential areas in severe cold region in winter, field measurements on air temperature and black-bulb temperature have been carried out in riverside residential area and inland residential area of Harbin on typical weather day, then quantitative methods are used to analyze the thermal environment differences in winter between riverside residential area and inland residential area, and the impact of building layout in residential area on thermal environment. Furthermore, human thermal sensation is evaluated according to the wind chill temperature. The results indicate that the thermal environment of riverside residential area is worse than that of inland residential area, and there are significant differences in thermal environment among varied building layout patterns. The mean air temperature of riverside residential area is 2.45 ℃ lower than that of inland residential area, the average black-bulb temperature of riverside residential area is 3.66 ℃ lower, the average wind velocity is 0.48 m/s bigger and the average wind chill temperature is 5.59 ℃ lower. The solar radiation has the maximum effect on raising riverside residential areas' temperature in winter, the second is buildings' layout. Row layout pattern has the highest cold degree, followed by the square, and the riverside entrance, enclosing and semi-enclosing layout pattern has the lowest cold degree. Besides, increasing the building interval in the row layout can effectively reduce the cold degree and improve the thermal comfort degree.