In hot area, the stiffness of the pavement will be changed under thermal stress, and even the buckling deformation may appear. To reveal the thermal buckling mechanism of the pavement and the effect on the dynamic characteristic, the post-buckling paths and vibration characteristics of a plate resting on the Winkler elastic foundation in thermal environment are studied theoretically. Firstly, considering the effect of thermal stress, the nonlinear vibration governing equation of the plate is formulated based on the third order shear deformation theory, von Karman nonlinear displacement-strain relationship and Hamilton’s principle. Secondly, a two-step theoretical method is developed: the nonlinear static thermal buckling displacement is solved firstly and the linear vibration characteristics are calculated at the reference buckling deflection. With the increment of the temperature, the variation trends of the post buckling paths and vibration characteristics of the plate resting on Winkler foundation with different stiffness coefficients are analyzed. The influences of foundation stiffness on the buckling temperature, buckling deflection, natural frequencies and mode shapes are revealed.