Eight typical short-time heavy rainfall cases (hourly precipitation greater than 20 mm) in Shandong from 2006 to 2013 are selected and classified into 4 types according to synoptic scale systems, and based on data of ADTD lightning location system in Shandong, The correlations between different types of short-time heavy rainfall and cloud-to-ground flashes (hereinafter referred to as ground flash) are studied. The correlations between ground flashes and characteristics of short-time heavy rainfall such as intensity, occurrence time, and spatial distribution are analyzed combined with ground flash frequency and plensity. The results are as follows. 1) The correlations are different between heavy rainfall in different weather types and ground flash within different ranges, and the same is true between heavy rainfall in different weather types and spatial and temporal characteristics of ground flash within fixed ranges. Major ground flashes are negative among these types of short-time heavy rainfall and positive ground flashes account for a small percentage. The bigger the percentage of negative flashes, the stronger the precipitation. The correlation between ground flash frequency and precipitation is relatively good within 30 km from the station. The correlation between ground flash frequency of Type Ⅰ (upper trough/cold front) short-time heavy rainfall and ground flash frequency is the best, followed by that between Type Ⅱ (low vortex/shear line) short-time heavy rainfall and ground flash frequency, and that between Type Ⅲ (extratropical cyclone) short-time heavy rainfall—Huanghuai Cyclone and ground flash frequency is poor. Type Ⅳ (tropical cyclone) short-time heavy rainfall is better correlated to positive ground flashes. 2) Ground flash frequency is indicative of the precipitation variation of a single process and cannot be directly used to distinguish short-term heavy rainfall, while the peak values of ground flash frequency give certain indications in forecasting short-term heavy rainfall. The peak values of ground flash frequency of Type Ⅰ short-time heavy rainfall—backward-tilting upper trough/cold front and Type Ⅱ short-time heavy rainfall—northwestern vortex and southwestern vortex give stronger indications, those of Type Ⅱ short-time heavy rainfall—cold shear and warm shear give weaker indications, and those of Type Ⅰ short-time heavy rainfall—forward-tilting upper trough/cold front, Type Ⅲ short-time heavy rainfall—Huanghuai Cyclone, and Type Ⅳ short-time heavy rainfall give no obvious indications. 3) High ground flash density is well correlated to short-time heavy rainfall area, while short-time heavy rainfall will not necessarily happen in the center of high ground flash density; most stations of extreme short-time heavy rainfall are correlated to the center of ground flash density; the ground flash density of 5 times·(10 km)-2·h-1 can act as a reference threshold for forecasting Type Ⅰ short-time heavy rainfall—backward-tilting upper trough/cold front, Type Ⅱ short-time heavy rainfall—warm shear, and Type Ⅱ short-time heavy rainfall—southwestern vortex.