Abstract <p>The Donbas region has accumulated hundreds of coal waste dumps, and not less than one third of them are self-heating. With a view to substantiating parameters of a system for temperature monitoring of self-heating coal waste dumps, the temperature field dynamics was analyzed using model fills. It is found that a fill of unoxidized waste rocks possesses more pronounced properties of a heat accumulator than a fill of oxidized waste rocks. The rate of average temperature variation and the temperature field nonuniformity of the model fills under influence of internal and/or external sources of heat emission are governed by both grain-size composition and thermal destruction of waste rocks. The features of temperature stratification of heated model fills are conditioned by their genetic structure and by spatial location of heat sources. The research findings are useful for determination of sampling times for heat meters, adjustment of their positions in subsurface zones of self-heating waste dumps, as well as for interpretation of temperature monitoring data of such man-made formations.</p>