Abstract:This paper reviewed briefly the development of operational weather forecast and service in the Central Meteorological Office since its founding in 1950 to the end of 1979. It could be divided into 3 stages. The first stage was from its founding to the late 1950s. The main difficulties in this stage were lack of observation data for constructing synoptic weather maps and lack of qualified forecasters. Thanks to the National First 5 Year Plan, a large amount of surface weather stations and radiosound stations were set up. A joint weather forecasting center was operating during 1950—1955, jointly by the Central Meteorological Office and the Geophysical Research Institute of Chinese Academy of Sciences, which promoted the growth of weather forecasters and the development of operational work as well. The second stage was from late 1950s to early 1970s. Disturbed seriously by ‘culture revolution’ and wrong technical policies adopted by Meteorological Service, no significant progress has been made during the stage. Fortunately, the whole works were not paralyzed. However, the technical gaps between China and developed countries in these respects were widen greatly. The third stage was from middle of 1970s to end of 1970s. Having restored its legal seat in WMO 1973, China soon jointed the WWW program of WMO. In the program, China was recommended to be a Regional Meteorological Center and a Regional Telecommunication hub in the WWW frame work. In later years the Central Meteorological Office main works were to do the preparation for this purpose: purchase appropriate equipments including computers; training the technical personnel; software development and bilateral talks between China and other countries to establish telecommunication line, etc. By the end of 1970s, all the preparation has been done, the Central Meteorological Office then changed its title as Regional Meteorological Center and ready for a new development in later years.