The process and the methods in the study of synoptic cyclone was reviewed. The contents included Bjerknes’ synoptic cyclone mode in the early period, the life cycle of Bjerknes’s and Solberg’s synoptic cyclones, and the temperature structures of the cyclone described by Petterssen. Meanwhile, the impacts of latent heating and topography on the cyclone development were briefly introduced. Besides, the authors recounted the Petterssen cyclone development theory, slantwise vorticity development theory, the cyclone-genesis theory based on the quasi-geostrophic (QG) -w equation and the isentropic potential vorticity (IPV) thinking, and the academic view of the cyclone development induced by ultra-long wave development and upper level jet-stream acceleration. All these provided the historic background, the ideas and the methods in the cyclone studies.