In a previous paper [Combust. Flame 57 (1984)] Fakheri and Buckius described an analytical model for the temperature, concentration, and velocity distributions produced during catalytic combustion over a flat catalytic plate. Here, the predictions of that model are compared to measurements of the steady state temperature distribution during hydrogen oxidation over a nickel oxide plate. Experiments were done at inlet gas temperatures between 600 and 770K, free stream velocities between 0.7 and 2 m/s, and hydrogen concentrations between 94 and 98.3% (balance oxygen). The results showed that under most of the conditions studied, the reaction was mass transfer limited. The plate temperature varied approximately linearly with the inlet gas temperature and the inlet oxygen concentration, and was essentially independent of the free stream velocity. The temperature dropped down the length of the plate because of radiant heat losses. A comparison of theory and experiment showed that the model reproduced all of the experimental trends, and gave reasonable agreement with the measured temperature distribution over most of the conditions studied. However, the model predicted too long an ignition distance, and seemed to diverge slightly from the data at higher oxygen concentrations. Still, the agreement between theory and experiment was much better than that of previous models, which suggests that the analysis can be used to model catalytic combustion under mass transfer dominated conditions.