Large steel water pipes are joined prevalently by the bell end method, and are welded both at inside and outside of lapped parts. In practice, welded joints of water pipes are very critical, because in most cases failure of pipes causing leakage occurs at the welded joint. Therefore some methods have been developed to ensure the soundness of welded joints of water pipes, like leakage tests and nondestructive tests (NDTs). But one of the major characteristics that affects the soundness of welded Joints is the stress distribution caused by welding and external forces. Some studies have been carried out on the residual stress of steel water popes, but complex stress distributions by welding and external forces are rarely studied. In this study, temperature and stress distributions in steel water pipes produced by welding are predicted by a three-dimensional finite element method(FEM). Also, stress values are measured from real steel water pipes by the hole-drilling methods, and compared with predicted ones. The influence of some typical post weld treatments on residual stress distribution was also investigated by residual stress measurements.