[3]: 1254 [4]: 203 On the evening of March 27, upper-air plots identified a broad and powerful upper-level trough exiting the southern Rocky Mountains into the Great Plains.

By 15:00 UTC, surface dewpoints had surged in excess of 60 °F (16 °C) across Georgia and South Carolina, at which time forecasters at the National Weather Service Severe Local Storms Unit (SLSU) – equivalent to the modern-day Storm Prediction Center – outlined a Moderate risk of severe weather from southwestern Georgia northeastward into southern Maryland.

Within three hours, these moist dewpoints surged well into eastern North Carolina as the surface low pushed into southern Kentucky.

[5] To the south of the original area of low pressure, a distinct mesolow developed along the warm front across northern Alabama.

This system moved rapidly northeast at speeds up to 55 kn (65 mph; 100 km/h), thus crossing into eastern North Carolina during the evening hours.

It was noted by Grazulis and other researchers[16]: 648  that this outbreak developed near the center of a large-scale low, in a fashion resembling the 1925 Tri-State tornado.

[51] This outbreak was also part of a larger storm system that was responsible for producing severe weather across a much wider area of the eastern U.S. On the previous day, weaker tornadoes had been reported in scattered locations from Louisiana to Alabama, and a thunderstorm-caused flash flood was suspected to be the cause of a train derailment in north Florida.