Ratios of area mean rainfall and cloud-to-ground lightning flash count (termed rain yields) were computed for several different locations around the globe, over temporal and spatial scales of 1 month and 104-105 km2, respectively. Values of the rain yield clustered near 108 kg/fl for a large portion of the midcontinental United States. Rain yields were slightly lower over the arid southwestern United States, averaging ~6¿107 kg/fl. In tropical locations the rain yields increased systematically from a tropical continental value of 4¿108 kg/fl to a value of 1010 kg/fl for the tropical western Pacific Ocean. The observed stability of the rain yield, coupled with demonstrated positive correlations between cloud-to-ground flash density and rainfall amount, suggests that cloud-to-ground lightning data may be useful for inferring monthly convective rainfall statistics in certain rainfall regimes. ¿ 1998 American Geophysical Union