 During the Younger Dryas, the Southeastern United States was warmer and wetter than the region had been during the Pleistocene because of trapped heat from the Caribbean within the North Atlantic Gyre caused by a weakened Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC).Also, a gradient of changing effects occurred from the Great Lakes region south to Texas and Louisiana.Climatic forcing moved cold air into the northern portion of the American interior, much as it did the Northeast.