Abstract:A wholeprovince range thunderstorm occurred in Zhejiang Province on 26 June 2009, and the occurrence frequency of cloudtoground lightning in this thunderstorm is the highest since the establishment of the lightning position system in 2006. By means of the observation data from the lightning position system, the intensive rainfall observation system, and Doppler radar, the characteristics of the cloudtoground lightning process are analyzed. The results indicate that lightning strokes were mainly negative; in the lightning echo image, negative strokes were mostly distributed in the area of 25 dBz to 55 dBz, and positive strokes were usually in the area of 25 dBz to 35 dBz; lightning strokes occurred mostly on the side of echo development or advancement, distributed around the area with maximum gradients, and there seldom appeared lightning strokes around a strong echo center; the frequency of cloudtoground lightning was correlated closely with the accumulated precipitation of the whole province during the thunderstorm. The peak value of precipitation lagged more than 0.5 hour behind the peak value of the frequency of cloudtoground lightning, and the accumulated precipitation of the whole province occurred 1 to 2 hours behind the peak value of the frequency of cloudtoground lightning. Therefore, the cloudtoground lightning data can be used as a basis in shortrange severe precipitation forecasting.