One thing to keep in mind when looking at the ENTLN total lightning time series graphs is that you must pay attention to if there are any cell mergers in the lightning tracking or the change in flash rate could be misleading. Here is an example where it appears that the storm intensified and then weakened, but in reality the algorithm merged to storms together and then separated them. You can see this on on the time series graph for Pt11 at ~2037 UTC where the cell area rapidly increases at the same time that the lightning rate increased. This was followed by a rapid decrease in lightning flash rates and cell area as the algorithm resplit the cell. Note that radar data clearly indicated that the cells were two separate cells the entire time.

Looking at the cell polygons over the course of a few minutes also shows this well.