Climatological aspects of Arctic cyclones are examined for winter and summer over a 20‐year (1973–1992) period. The primary objective is to characterize patterns of cyclone distribution examined in previous studies in terms of cyclone sea level pressure tendency (SLPT), maximum deepening rates and the frequency of cyclogenesis and cyclolysis. Results rely on output from a system detection and tracking algorithm applied to twice‐daily National Meteorological Center sea level pressure fields.