Abstract <p>The paper presents a detailed analysis of the statistical structure of the 2D velocity field of coherent vortices in a turbulent flow. Synthetic velocity fields, as well as a database of PIV measurements of the flow behind the cylinder were the object of the conducted analysis. The synthetic field was generated in the form of homogeneous isotropic turbulence with an analytical field of coherent vortices of two types superimposed on the field, specifically shear vortices with the same vorticity direction and vortex cells with alternating direction of vorticity. The former are typical, for example, for mixing layers, the latter are typical when streamlining bodies. The analysis of the histograms of the generated velocity fields made it possible to associate their peaks with the most probable development phases of the coherent vortex structures. It is shown that with an increase in the level of background turbulence, these peaks blur, while the two-mode velocity histograms are transformed into single-mode ones, which are most often found in turbulent flows. A simple analytical method is proposed for detecting such hidden peaks in single-mode distributions, followed by sampling groups of instantaneous velocity implementations corresponding to the most probable phases of flow development from a common database of random uncorrelated measurements. These groups represent independent data that allow for further analysis, including phase averaging. Along with synthetic velocity fields such phase averaging was used for uncorrelated PIV measurements of 2D fields in the turbulent wake behind the cylinder. It is shown that the proposed phase-by-phase separation of measurement groups from a common database corresponds to the two most probable development phases of the wake behind the cylinder with alternating separation of vortices of different swirls at both sides of the cylinder and their further evolution followed by the formation of a turbulent vortex street.</p>