High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The 1981 Atlantic hurricane season officially began on June 1, 1981, and lasted until November 30, 1981. These dates conventionally delimit the period of each year when most tropical cyclones form in the Atlantic basin. The 1981 season was high in activity with 18 tropical depressions and twelve storms forming during the year. Nine of these systems made landfall. Cindy, Harvey, and Irene neither affected land directly nor indirectly.