Typhoon Surigae, known in the Philippines as Super Typhoon Bising, was the strongest Northern Hemisphere tropical cyclone to form before the month of May, one of the most intense tropical cyclones on record and the strongest tropical cyclone worldwide in 2021. The second named storm, first typhoon and first super typhoon of the 2021 Pacific typhoon season, Surigae originated from a low-pressure area south of the Micronesian island of Woleai that organized into a tropical depression on April 12. At 18:00 UTC that day, it strengthened to a tropical storm and was named Surigae by the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA). The formation of an eye and increasing winds prompted the JMA to upgrade the system to a severe tropical storm on April 13. The storm continued to gradually strengthen, and late on April 15, Surigae became a typhoon. Very favorable environmental conditions then allowed Surigae to begin a bout of rapid intensification; Surigae became a super typhoon the next day, and by April 17, the storm reached its peak intensity, with 10-minute sustained winds of 220 km/h (140 mph), 1-minute sustained winds of 315 km/h (196 mph), and a minimum pressure of 895 hPa (26.4 inHg). This made it the strongest pre-May typhoon on record. Afterward, the storm's weakening outflow and an eyewall replacement cycle caused Surigae to gradually weaken as its track shifted north-northwestward in the Philippine Sea. Following the eyewall replacement cycle, Surigae became an annular tropical cyclone on April 19, and restrengthened slightly. On April 22, the storm began to rapidly weaken as it accelerated northwestward into unfavorable environmental conditions, transitioning into a subtropical storm the next day. The subtropical system subsequently underwent extratropical transition, which it completed by April 24. Afterward, Surigae's extratropical remnant accelerated northeastward. On April 27, Surigae's remnant explosively intensified into a bomb cyclone near the Aleutian Islands, attaining hurricane-force winds. Afterward, the system gradually weakened as it turned eastward, slowing down in the process, before crossing the International Date Line on April 30 and fully dissipating on May 2.

During 2021, tropical cyclones formed in seven major bodies of water, commonly known as tropical cyclone basins. Tropical cyclones will be assigned names by various weather agencies if they attain maximum sustained winds of 35 knots. During the year, one hundred forty-five systems have formed and ninety-one were named, including one subtropical depression and excluding one system, which was unofficial. One storm was given two names by the same RSMC. The most intense storm of the year was Typhoon Surigae, with maximum 10-minute sustained wind speeds of 220 km/h (140 mph) and a minimum pressure of 895 hPa (26.43 inHg). The deadliest tropical cyclone was Typhoon Rai, which caused 410 fatalities in the Philippines and 1 in Vietnam, while the costliest was Hurricane Ida, which caused an estimated $75.25 billion USD in damage after striking Louisiana and the Northeastern United States.