A free air breathing fuel cell thermal model is developed. This proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) has been selected as the basis for the study due to its use in automotive applications. The blowers integrated to the stack provide the required air flow for hydrogen oxidation as well as the fluid for the stack thermal regulation. Hence, their controls are a key point for keeping the system to maximum efficiency. Using well-known fuel cell electrochemistry, a dynamic thermal model near freezing temperature, which includes the stack physical parameters, is developed and validated. In addition to these parameters, only the inlet and outlet air temperatures are used to derive the model. Experimental validation with a real I kW free air breathing PEMFC has demonstrated that the model can reasonably track the stack internal temperature with a maximum deviation between the observed and the estimated temperatures of 5%. Therefore, the proposed method will allow the development of efficient blower management systems for PEMFC efficiency improvement. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.