Given that the NLDN has continuous space and time coverage, an average detection efficiency in excess of 90% and mean location errors of ~500 m for cloud-to-ground (CG) lightning flashes, this presentation will examine the utility of using the NLDN to verify thunderstorm occurrence. In particular, a 15-year thunderstorm climatology (19952008) from Global Summary of the Day station observations will be compared to an NLDN lightning climatology at the ten stations currently used in the Albany Thunderstorm Contest and ten other first-order reporting stations distributed across a wide variety of climatological synoptic environments. Questions such as (i) how close to a station does CG lightning need to strike for a thunderstorm to be reported and does this distance vary by station, (ii) are there detectable trends and interannual variability in thunderstorm occurrence, and (iii) how do mean thunderstorm day soundings and standard thunderstorm forecasting variables vary from station to station will be addressed in this presentation.