Biogeographical shifts are a ubiquitous global biodiversity response to climate change. Responses across taxa and geographical locations are however highly variable and only partially explained by climate. Here, using a global meta-data set of marine climate-driven distribution shifts, we demonstrate that a significant proportion of this unexplained variation can be accounted for by coupling climate expectations with other non-climatic drivers. In particular, we found ocean flow direction to both facilitate and hinder shift responses to warming depending on its agreement with spatial gradients of temperature. These effects were dependent on the location of the shift within a species’ range and its biological identity, evidencing links between range and ocean dynamics through climate. Our results strengthen confidence on the global imprint of climate change on distribution shifts and stress the importance of framing expectations by reference to other interacting non-climatic factors shaping the coupling between climate change and biogeographical shifts