A disk drive is disclosed including a disk having a plurality of tracks, wherein each track comprises a plurality of data sectors. The disk drive further comprises a head coupled to a distal end of an actuator arm, and a voice coil motor (VCM) comprising a voice coil for rotating the actuator arm about a pivot. A read command is selected from a command queue, wherein the read command comprises a requested data sector. A maximum number of additional data sectors is determined that may be cached together with the requested data sector. An actual number of additional data sectors to cache is selected in response to the maximum number and a temperature of the voice coil.