Abstract: The temporal distribution and waveform characteristics for positive cloud to ground lightning (PCG) vary in different regions. The research on characteristics of PCG in Beijing Area is still not enough up to now. Based on the lightning location data from March to November in 2004 and 2005, the temporal distribution of PCG in Beijing Area is analyzed. The waveform characteristics are also investigated using the data of electric field change. The results show that from May to July there are more PCG happening than other seasons in Beijing Area. The PCG occupies 55.3% of all lightning events from March to May and from October to November, while the percentage of PCG is only 10.88% for the whole year. On the other hand, the distribution of PCG in Beijing also changes with time in a day, with a high frequency of PCG and a large percentage up to 16.2% during 15:00—21:00. It's also found that the temporal distribution is inverse correlation between PCG and negative cloud to ground lightning (NCG) in a day. There is a decreasing tendency of PCG lightning with an increase of cloud to ground (CG) lightning. For most of PCG there is only one return stroke and the percentage of PCG with multiple return strokes is only 3.89%. The PCG with multiple return strokes mainly occurs in May and November and during 15:40—17:20 in a day. The waveform parameters and the characteristics of continuing current are given by statistics. The rising time of return stroke is between 5—28 μs, with a mean value of 11.55 μs. The time of slow front is between 2.8—23.6 μs with 9.41 μs on average. The ratio between the amplitude of slow front and the peak of return peak is 53%. The time of recovering to zero is 43.97 μs and the depth of the dip is 20.75%. The average value of return stroke peak after being normalized to 100 km is 13.66 V·m-1. Most of PCG contain continuing current process. The percentage of PCG with continuing current is 69.2%, 48.7% of which lead to long continuing current. The average lasting time of continuing current is 113 ms.