In this paper, a systematic review was made on the rainstorm flood early warning research and operation in the Yangtze River basin in four aspects, namely, the meso scale rainstorm field observation experiment, the heavy rainfall meso scale system formation mechanism research, the heavy rainfall numerical model forecast technology and the hydro meteorological coupling model. Then, the main factors on restricting heavy rainfall forecast and flood early warning ability and level over the Yangtze River basin were analyzed. Lastly, the main problems of science and technology and its countermeasures were put forward.