On September 8, the Joint Typhoon Warning Center started to monitor a tropical disturbance that had developed about 935 km (580 mi) to the northeast of Hagåtña, Guam.

Over the next two days, the system gradually drifted west and intensified slightly, prompting the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) to issue a Tropical Cyclone Formation Alert (TCFA) on it.

[11] On continuing its west-northwestward movement, Roke eventually slowed to under 2 knots (3.7 km/h; 2.3 mph) with a tongue of cloud-free air entering the LLCC from the west side.

At that time, Roke was approximately 170 nautical miles (310 km; 200 mi) east of Kadena Air Base, Japan with winds of over 60 knots (110 km/h; 69 mph).

[24] Only six hours later, the storm further weakened and accelerated northeastward at approximately 31 knots (57 km/h; 36 mph) with rapidly dissipating deep convection completely sheared to the northeast of the LLCC.

[25] On September 16, the Central Weather Bureau, the government meteorological research and forecasting institution of the Republic of China (Taiwan) reported that the outer bands of the storm might bring heavy rains to the northern part of the country over the next few days after slowly brushing the Japanese islands of Okinawa.

[26] On September 16, the Japanese refiner company Nansei Sekiyu KK announced that they suspended marine operations for the rest of the week at its Nishihara refinery in Okinawa Prefecture that produces some 100,000 barrels per day (16,000 m3/d) as the storm neared land.

Also, concerns grew as the storm was heading towards the same area which was devastated by Talas, an unusually large but weak tropical cyclone that hit the region just a few weeks ago.

[29] Parts of the Kii Peninsula which were still in ruins were in a great danger as water levels of the mud dam rose to 70 centimeters, just below its maximum capacity.

City officials in Nagoya upgraded the evacuation advisory to the strongest level available and doubled the number of people who are subjected to the notice as local rivers brimmed with heavy rain.

The Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura said, "We need to exercise the maximum caution against heavy rain, strong winds and high waves in wide areas from western to northern Japan, according to the Meteorological agency".

Also, the Nissan Motor Company's spokesman Chris Keeffe said "workers at its Yokohama headquarters and nearby technical facilities were being told to go home early for safety reasons, and two plants were not operating.

"[39] Typhoon Roke caused no immediate problems other than broken security cameras at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, which had been in its path overnight.