Аннотация:The article describes physical mechanisms accounting for interannual variability of horizontal heat advection in the upper mixed layer (UML) in the North Atlantic in January and July. The data from ocean reanalyses ORA-S3, GFDL and GODAS over 1980–2011 are used for this analysis. The relative contribution of currents’ intensity, horizontal temperature gradients and their mutual influence into interannual variations of the advective heat transport in the UML is examined. In the most part of the North Atlantic basin, the variations of currents’ intensity are crucial factor accounting for the UML anomalies. The interannual heat advection anomalies in the Guiana current and the Gulf Stream vicinity (before veering off the continental slope) in January and July are caused by temperature gradients variations. In general, the influence of horizontal temperature gradient anomalies transported by abnormal currents in the North Atlantic is small.