One of the key questions in developmental dynamics is the balance between robustness and plasticity. In this work, we investigate robustness to temperature variations in the context of vertebrate segmentation. The spatial segment pattern is robust (compensated) in medaka fish subjected to different temperatures and day-night temperature cycles. Therefore, we study the effect of temperature on the segmentation clock, the genetic oscillator that controls the patterning through propagating waves. To quantify the temperature response of these oscillations and waves, we find a natural parametrization of the system’s dynamics using singular value decomposition. Remarkably, the spatiotemporal dynamics is separable and reduces to two principal modes: temporal (oscillation) and spatial (phase gradient). We extract the associated parameters, describing the segmentation waves, segmentation front, and axis growth. Our analysis results reveal varying degrees of temperature scaling and response time among these parameters. In particular, we find that the temporal mode is strongly temperature dependent and closely follows the temperature cycle, while the spatial component is less sensitive. Furthermore, the two timescales of the system, the oscillation frequency and the clock maturation, respond to temperature in the exact same way. This suggests that the segmentation clock feeds back on itself and controls its own slowing down. We then apply a dynamical system model to identify regimes of compensated and non-compensated patterning.