The increasing use of short-pulse lasers in modem technological applications has opened up a new area of research for analyzing the temperature distribution in laser irradiated materials. Due to the short time of the laser pulse in all these processes, non-Fourier conduction effects are introduced by the finite speed of propagation of the heat wave in laser irradiated materials. These are investigated theoretically in the present study with a hyperbolic heat conduction model and temperature contours considering both Fourier and non-Fourier formulations are presented. The ratio of thermal characteristic length to the laser beam width is demonstrated to be the parameter that has the most influence on the nature of the non-Fourier temperature distributions. This parameter spans a wide range of values corresponding to different modem applications in material processing and laser surgery.