The effect of thermal stratification on the stratified flow past a circular cylinder was examined in a wind tunnel. Turbulent intensities, the rms values of temperature and turbulent convective heat flux as well as the velocity and temperature profiles in the cylinder wake with a strong thermal gradient of $200^{circ}C/m$ were measured by using a hot-wire and cold-wire combination probe. It is found that the temperature field affects as an active contaminant, so that the vertical growth of vortical structure is suppressed and the strouhal number decreases with increasing the extent of stratification. And also, the wake structure can not sustain their symmetricity about the wake centerline and vertical turbulent motion dissipates faster than that of the neutral case when such a strong thermal gradient is superimposed. It is evident that the turbulent mixing in the upper half section is stronger than that of the lower of the wake in a stably stratified flow because the turbulent intensities and convective heat flux in the upper half section are larger than those of the lower half of the wake.