In one embodiment, an irrigated ablation system includes a probe to be inserted into a chamber of a heart, the probe including an electrode, a temperature sensor to provide a temperature signal indicative of a temperature of a myocardium, and an irrigation channel through which to irrigate the myocardium, a pump to pump an irrigation fluid into the irrigation channel, an RF signal generator to generate RF power to be applied by the electrode to ablate the myocardium, and a controller to receive the temperature signal, calculate a rate of change of the temperature over time based on the temperature signal, calculate an irrigation rate with which to irrigate the myocardium via the irrigation channel based at least on the calculated rate of change of the temperature, and provide an irrigation signal to the pump to irrigate the myocardium with the irrigation fluid at the calculated irrigation rate.
