The monitoring network of atmospheric electric field was built in central Guizhou in early 2020 . In order to understand the characteristics of atmospheric electric field in this region and explore the indicating significance of atmospheric electric field in lightning early warning , based on the data collected from atmospheric electric field instrument and lightning observation data in central Guizhou in 2020 , we investigate the characteristics of atmospheric electric field in sunny and thunderstorm days in central Guizhou and its application in lightning warning in this paper. The results show that the atmospheric electric field intensity in the clear days in central Guizhou fluctuates more during the daytime , with the peak values seen from 12 ∶00 to 18 ∶00 and the valley values from 01 ∶00 to 06 ∶00 . In view of thunderstorm weather , there is a good correspondence between electric field alarms and cloud-to-ground lightning activities in central Guizhou in both temporal distribution and spatial distribution . Diurnal variation characteristics of electric field alarm in lightning weather are obvious , showing a single peak and single valley pattern . The peak values appear from 17 ∶00 to 04 ∶00 the next day , and the valley values from 10 ∶00 to 14 ∶00 . Analysis of a large number of cases reveals that the alarm lead time of atmospheric electric field to lightning is 1 ~ 26 min , with an average of about 8 min . Monitoring the changes of atmospheric electric field after networking is of a certain indicating significance for predicting moving tracks of lightning. The above research results could be an important reference for lightning warning , and also lay a foundation for building a lightning warning model .