In this paper, a model describing the thermal effects on the optical parametric oscillator (OPO) of Gaussian continuous waves in double-pass cavities is presented. Eight equations, including forward and backward nonlinear waves, heat, and thermally induced phase mismatching equations, were coupled and solved simultaneously to investigate the effect of heat generation on the OPO's efficiency. The model was applied for a periodically poled MgO:LiNbO crystal with an excellent agreement with experimental data. The numerical calculations have been carried out by a homemade code written in Intel FORTRAN, which used a finite difference method.