In the present work, it was demonstrated that mass transfer and mass transfer coefficients related to the wood drying process can be satisfactorily quantified using thermography. The method was based on continuous measurements of the wood’s surface temperature, which were converted to a vapor pressure at the wood surface. The results showed that the values of the experimentally obtained transfer coefficients were in the same order of magnitude as values obtained with classical empirical correlations that apply in boundary layer theory. The measurements also showed that an average value of the mass transfer coefficient obtained during drying satisfactorily describes the complete process. The measurement set-up makes it possible to determine a surface potential accurately and continuously, which is useful in the assessment of wood drying processes. © 2023 The Author(s).