Predictions may be made regarding heat removal requirements depending on certain operational characteristics of an information processing system which have been monitored over time. A fan may be controlled based on the observed operational characteristics and based on the predictions made regarding the heat removal requirements for the system. For example, system utilization by applications may be monitored, possibly along with system performance parameters such as power level and frequency. These and other operational characteristics may be used to predict heat generation so that a fan may be controlled to anticipate temperature changes and thereby flatten temperature curves over time. This may be done in addition to monitoring the ambient temperature of the system and reacting to temperature spikes that may have already occurred.