The meteorological sounding record of 1965--92 and the ozone sounding record of 1988--92 at Sodankyl¿ have been studied. In early 1992 the stratospheric temperatures and geopotential heights were lower than the 1965--92 mean, especially in January. The occurrence of 50 hPa level temperatures below 195 K in January has increased considerably starting from the early 1980's up to a maximum in 1992. The partial pressures of stratospheric ozone in January--March 1992 were 17% lower than the 1988--91 averages with the largest relative monthly mean deviations up to -33% between the 13--17 km levels. ¿ American Geophysical Union 1994