Here is an example with Earth Networks Cell Lightning Cell tracking where a single cell split into two.

In the image below, there is a single cell detected by the tracking algorithm:

A few minutes later, the single cell splits into two:

The top right panel is the time series of lightning at point 1; the bottom right panel is the time series of lightning at point 2.

Note the lightning and area of point 1 decreases substantially around 2115 UTC. This is coincident with data coming into point 2. This shows the importance of taking into consideration the area when seeing trends in lightning. In this case, the decrease of lightning was because the cell at point 1 decreased in size and split into a second cell at point 2. This is why a time series began appearing for point 2 at the same time there was a decrease at point 1.

Polarimetric Researcher