The effect of the horizontal structure of midlatitude oceanic heating on the stationary atmospheric response is examined by means of a simple continuously stratified quasigeostrophic model, linearized about a basic state with constant zonal flowUo, on a beta plane. Solutions are obtained for three non-periodic zonal heating structures (line source, rectangular, and segmented cosine), and these are compared with the solution for the frequently used zonally periodic heating distribution. All four heating distributions assume an e−αzvertical structure and a cos ly meridional structure.