AbstractThe one-to-one relationship between the chirality of filament channels and the skew (relative orientation) of the overlying coronal arcades can be coupled with the predictions for the axial component of polar crown filaments based on past magnetic field observations to predict the skew of polar crown arcades in the recent cycle 22. We have surveyed the actual skew as seen in the Yohkoh SXT images over the declining phase of cycle 22 and found a result opposite to that expected. The SXT arcades have been compared with numerical models to show that while some of this result can be explained by flux distribution around switchbacks, other mechanisms such as differential rotation are also needed.