The atmospheric response to a potential slowdown of the Atlantic meridional overturning cell (AMOC) is examined using the nonlinear analytical approach (for Heinrich events) introduced by Sandal and Nof (Sandal, C. and Nof, D., A new analytical model for Heinrich events and climate instability. J. Phys. Oceanogr. 2008, 38, 451–466; SN, hereafter). Most numerical global climate models predict that the atmosphere should cool in response to the increased freshwater-fluxes (“hosing”) that slow the AMOC down and significantly reduce the heat-flux to the atmosphere. Our application of SN to the modern day climate suggests that the answer to the question of how the atmosphere responds to a slowing AMOC is not that simple. Within the (admittedly limited) dynamics which SN invoke, we find that, as the global numerical climate models predict, a slowdown of the AMOC will indeed cause the mean atmosphere of the entire Northern Hemisphere to cool. However, in contrast to the numerical predictions, our analytical approach suggests that a region in the immediate vicinity of the Atlantic convection (up to a distance of ∼O(1000 km)) may warm up, not cool down (roughly 3°C for 50% mass-transport reduction). For some extreme conditions of a constant atmospheric transport independent of the AMOC (which is not a part of the dynamics involved by SN), the atmosphere can indeed locally cool, but the cooling is minimal (less than 0.3°C for a 50% ocean mass transport reduction), and the associated reduction in heat flux from the ocean to the atmosphere is almost totally negligible. We also place the SN results on a somewhat firmer ground by examining in detail about its closure condition and the most critical assumption adapted by SN. The first has to do with the ratio of the atmospheric and oceanic mass transports (assumed unity in SN) and the second involves up-to-date maps of the ocean–atmosphere heat-fluxes. We show that the system of governing equations admits physically relevant solutions only for particular relationships between the atmospheric and ocean mass transports participating in the ocean–atmosphere heat exchange. Still, as the analytics misses critical atmospheric components such as moisture and variability in the heat exchange interaction area, our results can only serve as an indicator of the problem complexity.