The present application relates to a welding system and a welding helmet (1510) having a thermal sensing device (1515). In particular, the welding helmet (1510) has a shell (1610) to be worn by a human welder to protect the human welder while viewing a weld environment through a viewing window (1620) of the shell (1610) during a welding operation using a welding system. A thermal sensing device (1515) is integrated with the shell (1610) to sense thermal energy of the weld environment and generate thermal data based on the thermal energy. A thermal analysis module is integrated with the shell (1610) to analyze the thermal data and generate control parameters. A transmitter device (1520) is integrated with the shell (1610) to transmit the control parameters to the welding system. The control parameters control at least one welding parameter of the welding system during the welding operation.
