The stability analysis of a street of Stuart vortices in a rotating frame is performed by integrating the Kelvin–Townsend equations along the mean flow trajectories, using the geometrical optics technique (Lifschitz & Hameiri 1991) for short-wave perturbations. A parallel is drawn between the formulations of this zonal approach and that of rapid distortion theory, better known to the turbulence community. The results presented confirm those obtained by the standard stability analysis based on normal-mode decomposition: depending on the rotation parameter and the oblique mode considered, three unstable zones are identified, related to the centrifugal, elliptic and hyperbolic instabilities, as observed for Taylor–Green cells (Sipp et al. 1999). Anticyclonic rotation is shown to destabilize Stuart vortices through a combination of the elliptical and centrifugal instability mechanisms, depending on the ratio of its rate to the structure core vorticity. Available stability criteria are discussed in the general case of two-dimensional rotating flows, in relation to their streamline topology and the values of the local Rossby number or vorticity.