Three hardwood (ash, alder and black locust) and three softwood (Japanese red pine, radiata pine and Western hemlock) specimens were dried in microwave(MlW) oven and their drying rates were obtained. Their specific permeabilities were also measured by using a modified liquid permeability measuring device. The correlation between the M/W drying rates and permeabilities of six species were statistically analyzed. It was revealed that within a species there is a logarithmic relationship between the M/W drying rates and average moisture contents and that among species there is a linear relationship between the M/W maximum drying rates and the average specific permeabilities. A exception was Western hemlock, which was of low permeability and of high drying rate. A Me-time equation, which showed a good agreement with the actual data, was derived. Thus using this equation the moisture contents of wood and the drying end points of M/W drying could be predicted. Infrared images of the thermal distribution in wood were illustrated.