An analytical approach for heat transfer modelling of jet impingement boiling is presented. High heat fluxes with values larger than 10 MW/m(2) can be observed in the stagnation region of an impinging jet on a red hot steel plate with wall temperatures normally being associated with film boiling. However, sufficiently high degrees of subcooling and jet velocity prevent the formation of a vapor film, even if the wall superheat is large. Heat transfer is governed by turbulent diffusion caused by the rapid growth and condensation of vapor bubbles. Due to the high population of bubbles at high heat fluxes it has to be assumed that a laminar sublayer cannot exist in the immediate vicinity of a red hot heating surface. A mechanistic model is proposed which is based on the assumption that due to bubble growth and collapse the maximum turbulence intensity is located at the wall/liquid interface and that eddy diffusivity decreases with increasing wall distance.