We analyse the temporal evolution of the Differential Emission Measure (DEM) of solar active regions and explore its usage in solar flare prediction. The DEM maps are provided by the Gaussian Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (GAIA-DEM) archive, calculated assuming a Gaussian dependence of the DEM on the logarithmic temperature. We analyse time-series of sixteen solar active regions and a statistically significant sample of 9454 point-in-time observations corresponding to hundreds of regions observed during solar cycle 24. The time-series analysis shows that the temporal derivatives of the Emission Measure dEM/dt and the maximum DEM temperature dTmax/dt frequently exhibit high positive values a few hours before M- and X-class flares, indicating that flaring regions become brighter and hotter as the flare onset approaches. From the point-in-time observations we compute the conditional probabilities of flare occurrences using the distributions of positive values of the dEM/dt, and dTmax/dt and compare them with corresponding flaring probabilities of the total unsigned magnetic flux, a conventionally used, standard flare predictor. For C-class flares, conditional probabilities have lower or similar values with the ones derived for the unsigned magnetic flux, for 24 and 12 hours forecast windows. For M- and X-class flares, these probabilities are higher than those of the unsigned flux for higher parameter values. Shorter forecast windows improve the conditional probabilities of dEM/dt, and dTmax/dt in comparison to those of the unsigned magnetic flux. We conclude that flare forerunner events such as preflare heating or small flare activity prior to major flares reflect on the temporal evolution of EM and Tmax. Of these two, the temporal derivative of the EM could conceivably be used as a credible precursor, or short-term predictor, of an imminent flare.
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