Numerical experiments were carried out using a quasigeostrophic baroclinic model to investigate sensitivity of the circulation, eddy variability and jets to the thermal forcing and their meridional structure. Two different flow regimes were revealed: a turbulent regime with strong upscale energy transfer, strong indirect thermal cell and no evident life cycles and a radiatively arrested transfer regime with vanishing non-linear transfer term, indirect thermal circulation cell and clear life cycles. Numerical experiments showed sharp transitions from one to two and from two to three jets when the width of the baroclinically unstable region increased. It was found that the eddy heat fluxes and kinetic energy dropped when a new jet evolved in the system.