To further investigate the distribution characteristics of multi-return stroke of cloud-to-ground（CG） lightning

and provide references for the design of lightning protection engineering and lightning physics research

the parameters such as multiple strokes lightning frequency

return stroke time and distance are analyzed by a mathematical statistics method. These data are monitored by the lightning location system（LLS） of Hubei Meteorological Department from January 2007 to December 2017. The results show that the average percentages for multi-return stroke of positive

negative and total CG lightning account for 2.13%

35.06% and 32.97%. The arithmetic and geometric average interval time for multi-return stroke of positive

negative and total CG lightning are 101.17 ms

136.38 ms

136.30 ms

67.43 ms

107.75 ms and 107.65 ms

and their average durations are 104.29 ms

239.70 ms

239.15 ms

70.28 ms

203.22 ms and 202.68 ms. The average interval time for multi-return stroke of CG lightning shows a natural logarithmic decrease trend with the increase of stroke frequency. The average duration shows a natural logarithmic growth trend with the increase of stroke frequency. The stroke distance and radius for positive multi-return stroke are about 4 km. The average stroke distance for multi-return stroke is about 1.7 km

and its average radius is about 2.2 km. The stroke distance of more than 80% of multi-return stroke of CG lightning is less than 3 km

and the stroke radius is less than 4 km. Nearly 97% of the lightning stroke radius is not more than 8 km. With the increase of stroke frequency

the stroke distance shows a natural logarithmic decrease trend and the stroke radius shows a natural logarithmic growth trend. The average interval time of multi-return stroke is related to the detection efficiency of LLS and its statistical method. The universality of the annual

monthly and diurnal variation characteristics for the interval time

duration of stroke

lightning stroke distance

radius for multi-return stroke

and the mechanism of their occurrence need to be further studied.