Thermocouples (>40) are located ~10mm below the surface in the tiles of the MkIIGB JET divertor. The time response of the temperature can be used to reconstruct the power deposition profile, when the strike point is slowly (up to 20mm/s) moved along the tile. This novel technique relies on finite element simulations to obtain the profile shape which best fits the measured temperature history at the thermocouple. The spatial accuracy of the profile along the strike point path is limited to a length similar to the distance of the thermocouple from the surface: features smaller that 10 mm can hardly be resolved. Experiments with neutral beam heating power varying between 4 and 16MW have been modelled both on the outer and on the inner strike point. It has been found that a single exponential description of the power profile is unable to fully fit the time derivative of the temperature at the outer strike point for H-mode discharges: an additional localised peak has to be added at the tip of the single exponential. This feature is present independently of the shift velocity and its magnitude decreases when the amount of gas puffed in the divertor region is increased. Scaling laws for the peak power density and the power decay length have been derived for a limited set of discharges.