ABSTRACT: The occurrence of meteorological and hydrological drought is escalating in frequency even in countries with mild climatic conditions. Three extreme droughts occurred in the 21^st century in the Slovak Republic; in 2003, 2012 and 2015. Evaluation and comparison of these three extreme events in the Kysuca River Basin was conducted at the Kysucké Nové Mesto gauging station using the following methods: SPI12 index calculation, SPA with fixed Q80 threshold value, theoretical Weibull and GEV frequency distributions and the SANDRE method. Results showed that despite the 2003 extreme meteorological drought, the hydrological response of the catchment was the mildest of the three evaluated occurrences. In contrast, although 2015 was classified normal for precipitation amounts, the drought impact in this year was proven by far the most severe in evaluation of the hydrological drought in discharge time series and groundwater characteristics. These results highlighted the most important role of catchment water saturation status preceding hydrological drought events.