An embedded sensor, designed for rapid and accurate response times and using wireless data transmission, has been developed for the on-site measurement of temperatures in industrial continuous casting moulds. The sensor has been used to measure the temperature at several points in the mould during production in a Southwire copper casting process. The measured data has been used to calculate the temperature gradient in the mould to estimate the heat flux through it; this is then used as a boundary condition for numerical simulations of solidification. For these, we employ a method that tracks the solidification front explicitly; this has an advantage over fixed-grid methods in simulations for materials having a short solidification interval, since the release of latent heat at the solidification front can be resolved without resorting to a very fine mesh. The special considerations required for setting the initial condition for the numerical scheme and the time taken for the superheated melt to form a solid shell are also discussed.