Temporal variances in the concentration of trace species are examined within the northern hemisphere stratosphere following the final warming. Variances are computed utilizing an annual cycle run of a tracer transport model and stratospheric balloon observations. The model uses winds generated with a general circulation model to transport N2O. Regions of significant N2O variance are produced immediately following the modeled final warming as zonally inhomogeneous N2O anomalies are created during the warming, then advected passively about the pole by easterly winds. Diffusion rapidly dissipates these anomalies and decreases the associated stratospheric tracer variance to very low levels by June. On monthly timescales the 10 day normal mode explains up to 50% of the modeled variance of N2O during summer. On these timescales potential temperature exhibits less variability than N2O, as horizontal parcel displacements are relatively ineffective at inducing potential temperature variability. An examination of balloon observations of N2O and other long lived trace species, between 40¿ and 50¿N, indicates that the primary component of the tracer variance during June is on an interannual time scale. We attribute this interannual variability to stratospheric variability during the winter and early spring months imprinted onto the distributions of long lived tracers. Potential temperature does not exhibit much interannual variability because it does not retain a memory of the previous winter's circulation. ¿ American Geophysical Union 1990