Abstract: The World Meteorological Centres (WMCs) are the top operational centres in the three-level Global Data Processing and Forecasting System (GDPFS) of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). They have made outstanding contributions to international disaster prevention and mitigation as well as international sustainable development by providing global monitoring and forecasting information products. This paper systematically reviews the development status of WMCs at present. By focusing on the concept of Seamless Earth System, we introduced the latest development of seamless forecasting, AI, cloud computing, etc., and made a preliminary outlook on the future development trend of WMCs based on the latest strategic plans of the advanced operational centres around the globe and the latest policies of the WMO.