What is the Shapiro-Keyser cyclone model?
During cases of rapid cyclogenesis (see the Glossary), the long accepted ‘Norwegian’ frontal/cyclone development model is not appropriate. M.A. Shapiro and D. Keyser, in a paper published in 1990, proposed an alternative which has gained widespread acceptance. I am grateful to Dr. David Schultz (NSSL) for permission to quote the following from an article written (with co-author H. Wernli) for the ‘Mariners Weather Log’, which to my mind is an excellent summary of the differences between the ‘classical’ frontal depression model and that proposed for rapid cyclogenesis events … “The Norwegian cyclone model, so named to honor the Norwegian meteorologists (e.g. Bjerknes, Bergeron and Solberg) who first conceptualised the typical life-cycle of midlatitude cyclones in the 1910’s and 1920’s, presents the evolution of a cyclone from an incipient frontal wave with cold and warm fronts, to a deepening cyclone with a narrowing warm sector as the cold front rotates around the cyclone faster than
