Abstract Idealized numerical experiments within the frameworks of semigeostrophic and primitive equation dynamics were performed to study the effect of barotropic shear on idealized upper-level induced cyclogenesis. Localized finite-amplitude potential temperature anomalies were used as initial perturbations, and the atmosphere was considered as a dry frictionless fluid of uniform quasigeostrophic potential vorticity on an f-plane. It is demonstrated that the main features of the numerical simulations are in essence unaffected by the choice of the dynamical framework. They comprise, for instance, the development of elongated cold fronts under anticyclonically sheared conditions, a “T-bone” shaped frontal palette in the unsheared case (cf. Shapiro and Keyser), and a Bergen-type occlusion process in the simulations with cyclonic shear. This confirms the profound dynamical influence of lateral shear in the background environment upon the resulting surface cyclone and frontal structures (and the accompanying ...