This study evaluated the application of the European flood forecasting operational real time system (EFFORTS) to the Yellow River. An automatic data pre-processing program was developed to provide real-time hydrometeorological data. Various GIS layers were collected and developed to meet the demands of the distributed hydrological model in the EFFORTS. The model parameters were calibrated and validated based on more than ten years of historical hydrometeorological data from the study area. The San-Hua Basin (from the Sanmenxia Reservoir to the Huayuankou Hydrological Station), the most geographically important area of the Yellow River, was chosen as the study area. The analysis indicates that the EFFORTS enhances the work efficiency, extends the flood forecasting lead time, and attains an acceptable level of forecasting accuracy in the San-Hua Basin, with a mean deterministic coefficient at Huayuankou Station, the basin outlet, of 0.90 in calibration and 0.96 in validation. The analysis also shows that the simulation accuracy is better for the southern part than for the northern part of the San-Hua Basin. This implies that, along with the characteristics of the basin and the mechanisms of runoff generation of the hydrological model, the hydrometeorological data play an important role in simulation of hydrological behavior.