AbstractA classification scheme for satellite observed cloud vortices is used to assess some general features of the behaviour of Southern Hemisphere depressions. From coincident conventional observations the mean variation of surface pressure and upper level geopotential anomaly near the centre of, and in west‐east cross‐section through an extratropical vortex is determined in relation to its age. Data are obtained on the geographical variation of occurrence of vortex type, duration, and frequency of change between development stages. The percentage of vortices developing without a pre‐existing cloud band is found to be greater at higher latitudes but, in general, over 50 per cent of developments occur in this way.Persistent maxima of early vortex development are found in the western South Atlantic and in the central South Pacific, both regions extending into lower latitudes than elsewhere in the hemisphere. Two less prominent maxima are located in the central Indian Ocean, and south of Australia. Generalized vortex track and speed data are obtained, and several areas of high frequency of termination of depression track are observed at high latitudes near the Antarctic coast.In total, the observations tend to point to a circulation pattern having a high frequency of major long wave troughs east of the Andes, and in the central Pacific, with a further frequent trough more variable in space and time being located between the central Indian Ocean and the longitude of the Great Australian