Gerald formed in mid-April near an upper-level low, and recurved just east of Guam bringing the island heavy rainfall.

Ike was the first system to form in the South China Sea, living during the second week of June before recurving across Taiwan and becoming an extratropical cyclone.

Thunderstorms developed near the upper level system, and an outflow pattern was present on satellite imagery, but a surface circulation did not materialize until April 15.

Steady intensification was seen until around midday on April 17 when a new upper level high formed to its east, inducing southerly vertical wind shear.

Weakening substantially over the mountainous island, Ike attempted slight tropical redevelopment before it became an extratropical cyclone late on the morning of June 14.

As the TUTT cell moved to the disturbance's northwest, intensification sped up and a low level circulation center formed on June 15 about 320 kilometres (200 mi) north of Palau.

The typhoon hit southern Hainan Island on July 3, bringing wind gusts to 54 knots (100 km/h) at Tate's Cairn in Hong Kong.

[3] On the morning of June 27, an area of enhanced thunderstorm activity was spotted just south of Ponape along a weak portion of the monsoon trough.

It took until late on July 4 for the storm to recover from its Philippine interaction and redevelop a central dense overcast and quicken its pace to the west across Luzon.

Turning northwest across the South China Sea, light to moderate easterly wind shear prevented Lynn's development into a typhoon.

[2] Moving through the Formosa Strait as a weak tropical storm, Maury made a second landfall near Fu-Chou, China on the morning of July 20.

Its former thunderstorm activity decoupled from the surface center while still offshore and moved inland near Nam Định, Vietnam before dissipating over Laos late on July 24.

Early on the morning of July 23, its center made landfall northwest of Hsia-p'u, China before quickly dissipating in mountainous terrain inland.

Upper-level wind shear took its toll, leading to its weakening into a tropical depression and its ultimate dissipation in the Yellow Sea along the west coast of Korea.

Early on August 11, Susan entrained cooler and drier air from behind the frontal zone which led to a significant reduction in thunderstorm activity.

A warm core ridge building to its northeast forced the storm on a more west-northwest course, and as a second cold front approached, Susan recurved into the boundary, becoming an extratropical cyclone during the late morning of August 13.

On August 22 Thad accelerated northward between a subtropical ridge to its east and a deepening shortwave to its west, striking eastern Japan with a forward motion near 45 knots (83 km/h).

Once Vanessa freed itself from nearby troughs of low pressure, it lost one of its primary outflow channels and its northeastward movement subsequently exposed the system to the main belt of the westerlies.

Agnes remained well south of Korea until September 3, when it unleashed a torrent of rainfall, the heaviest of the 20th century up to that time, when 711.2 millimetres (28.00 in) fell upon the peninsula.

The typhoon followed a classic parabolic track around the periphery of the subtropical ridge east of Japan, weakening back into a tropical storm on September 7.

Its circulation disrupted, Clara steadily weakened as it continued to the northwest, hitting southeast China on the 21st as a typhoon with winds of 70 knots (130 km/h).

Recurving around the subtropical ridge, Doyle accelerated rapidly northeastward, weakening over cool waters as it was merging with a frontal zone and becoming an extratropical cyclone during the early morning of September 24 near 39°N 172°E / 39°N 172°E / 39; 172.

The typhoon brought relief to drought conditions in Okinawa, when 150 millimetres (5.9 in) of rainfall fell there are the circulation center of Gay moved by about 175 kilometres (109 mi) to their southeast.

As it continued moving towards Japan, the center passed only 50 kilometres (31 mi) from Tokyo, bringing significant rainfall to central portions of the island archipelago.

Never recovering from the mountainous archipelago, Hazen struck Vietnam about 280 kilometres (170 mi) east-northeast of Hanoi, and dissipated as it entered southeast China.

Irma quickly strengthened on November 22 to a super typhoon with maximum winds of 135 knots (250 km/h), but its outflow was disrupted by the Philippines to the southwest.

It navigated through a break in the subtropical ridge and dissipated over cooler waters on November 26 due to increasing vertical wind shear well to the south of Japan.

Strong northerlies previously diverted into Kit closed off a portion of the monsoon trough, with near gale-force winds wrapping around the convection.

On December 28, all of the cyclone's convection was removed well east of the circulation center due to moderate to strong westerly vertical wind shear.

This table will list all the storms that developed in the northwestern Pacific Ocean west of the International Date Line and north of the equator during 1981.