Abstract: The northeast cold vortex in China is a typical weather system in which lightning often occurs. In this paper, the meteorological potential conditions of lightning in the northeast cold vortex are analyzed by statistical analyses and a case study. The results show that the weather conditions include a strong air flow, sufficient water vapor and strong energy. The strong potential vortexes corresponding to the cold vortexes in the middle and upper layers provide potential conditions for the occurrence of strong convection. The mature energy of convective instability of the cold vortex is located in the southeast near the center of the cold vortex. The large value coincidence area of the jet stream, the air vertical velocity in low layer, the higher temperature in upper while low temperature in lower layer, the specific humidity and other physical quantities are corresponding to the lightning occurrence.