Hurricane lightning data have been examined for 34 tropical cyclones from 1986 though 1996. We have examined position, wind speed, and pressure for every six hours of each cyclone's lifetime and related this to the cloud-to-ground lightning locations and frequency. Only lightning within 300 km of the cyclone center and within the range of the National Lightning Detection Network is examined. The CG lightning activity is highly variable ranging from 49 in an unnamed hurricane of 1991 to 37,679 in tropical storm Alberto (1994). Cyclones with fewer flashes in general displayed higher rates of positive CG lightning. We tend to seen an increase in CG lightning during periods of intensification. Cloud-to-ground lightning also increases during landfall. The frequency of CG lightning is highly variable in tropical cyclones, particularly in weak systems. Consequently, the lightning characteristics must be carefully evaluated for each storm