At the beginning of the exciting period in a pulse-excited torch discharge only a high-frequency corona is formed and this slowly changes a torch discharge. The vibrational temperatures determined from two different sequences of vibration bands of the 2-positive group N2 differ from one another up to the time when the torch discharge forms its own channel. In the discharge channel the vibrational temperature is the same for both sequences. These measurements show that conditions near to thermodynamical equilibrium exist in the channel of a torch discharge.