The relationship of cloud-to-ground (CG) lightning strikes to the stages of updraft/downdraft evolution is investigated in a multicell thunderstorm that occurred on 11 July 1989 during the North Dakota Thunderstorm Project. With only single-Doppler radar data available for this storm, reflectivity and single-Doppler velocity signatures are used to identify individual cells within the storm and to deduce the stage of evolution within each cell. Cell evolution appeared to follow the Thunderstorm Project model of the late 1940s: updraft growth and vertical development during the growing (cumulus) stage, updraft peaking in the upper portion of the cell and rainy downdraft descending from the middle portion during the mature stage, and lighter precipitation settling out during the dissipating stage. On 11 July, cells tended to occur in clusters, each cluster consisting of growing/mature and dissipating cells close together in both time and space. No CG strikes were detected when the convective region of the storm contained only one cluster of cells; all strikes occurred when there were two or more clusters of cells. With only two exceptions, strikes occurred in the convective region of the storm, typically closer to growing/mature cells than to dissipating cells. These observations support the hypothesis that descending precipitation creates electrical conditions conducive to flashes reaching ground. However, these observations also suggest that the greater complexity of electrical structure due to the juxtaposition of several cells is especially conducive to CG flashes and can cause CG flashes to occur earlier in a new cell's life cycle than would otherwise be the case.