Abstract: Wind turbine blades are exposed to lightning strike damages, thus seriously threatening safe and stable operation of wind farms. Based on self-consistent leader inception and propagation model, in this paper, a calculation method for any position along wind turbine blade by lightning strike is proposed, and a model for the distribution characteristics of downward lightning strikes risks along wind turbine blade is established. The lightning collection area on the ground, and the critical lightning current for shielding failure of the blade tip are defined. Considering lightning current amplitude, blade orientation angle and blade length, the lightning strike risk distributions of wind turbines blades with different capacity are calculated. It is found that the shielding range of blade tip decreases with the reduction of the lightning current amplitude; the critical lightning current for shielding failure of the blade tip decreases with the increase of blade orientation angle; the lightning strike risk of blade tip decreases with the increase of blade length. The blade could be divided into three zones named Z₁, Z₂₀ and Z₂₁ according to the blade structure and lightning strike risks. Lightning strike breakdown processes in different lightning strike risk zones are investigated. Therefore, a differentiated lightning protection method is recommended for different lightning strike risk zones of the blade.