By using the thunderstorm observation data from 1980 to 2010 of Linxia station in the northeast side of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and the lightning data from 2006 to 2010 in the middle area of Gansu,thunderstorm and lightning characteristics such as inter-annual variation,annual variation,diurnal variation,directions of first thunderstorm,cloud-to-ground lightning density,etc were analyzed.The results of this paper found the formation characteristics of thunderstorm and lightning:the thunderstorms and lightning mainly happened in the summer and afternoon;the cloud-to-ground lightning density is higher than the average densities in China.This research will be useful to prevention and mitigation of disasters.