The invention relates to a 
lightning monitoring and early warning method and 
system. The method comprises the steps of S1, detecting 
atmosphere average electric fields, 
optical radiation signals, 
electric field changing signals, 
magnetic field changing signals and GPS 
satellite signals of an area to be monitored and conducting 
signal conditioning and conversion, S2, judging whether the 
electric field changing amount meets preset triggering conditions or not according to the 
electric field changing signals, conducting 
signal collection and storage and executing the step S3 if the electric field changing amount meets the preset triggering conditions, and refreshing and awaiting if the electric field changing amount does not meet the preset triggering conditions, S3, conducting waveform characteristic extraction on the collected 
optical radiation signals, the collected electric field changing signals and the collected 
magnetic field changing signals, conducting cloud-to-ground 
lightning identification and location according to extracted characteristic parameters, and meanwhile storing and displaying the position of 
lightning in a 
geographic information system, the lightning time and waveforms of the 
optical radiation signals, the electric field changing signals and the 
magnetic field changing signals in the lightning process, and S4, generating early warning results according to cloud-to-ground lightning identification and location results and 
atmosphere average electric field amplitudes, and giving an warning 
signal according to the early warning results.