The action of a rising vortex pair on the thermal boundary layer at an air–water interface is studied both experimentally and numerically. The objective is to relate variations in the surface temperature field to the hydrodynamics of the vortex pair below. The existence of a thermal boundary layer on the water side of an air–water interface is well known; it is this boundary layer which is disrupted by the action of the vortex system. Experimentally, the vortices were generated via the motion of a pair of submerged flaps. The flow was quantified through simultaneous measurement of both the subsurface velocity field, via digital particle image velocimetry (DPIV), and the surface temperature field, via an infrared (IR) sensitive imager. The results of the physical experiments show a clearly defined disruption of the ambient thermal boundary layer which is well correlated with the vorticity field below. Numerical experiments were carried out in a parameter space similar to that of the physical experiments. Included in the numerical experiments was a simple surfactant model which enabled the exploration of the complex role surface elasticity played in the vortex–free surface interaction. The results of this combined experimental and numerical investigation suggest that surface straining rate is an important parameter in correlating the subsurface flow with the surface temperature field. A model based on surface straining rate is presented to explain the interaction.