The Carolinas tornado outbreak of March 28, 1984, was the most destructive tornado outbreak to sweep through the two states since another tornado outbreak struck 100 years and 1 month earlier, according to NOAA and NCDC public records. Summary 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. Winds in the upper reaches of the troposphere accelerated upwards of across Texas and Mississippi. In the mid-levels of the atmosphere, the trough detached into a cut-off low, while a potent shortwave trough rounded the base of this feature into the Gulf Coast of the United States. Winds at this level increased to , and notably, became increasingly diffluent across the Southeastern United States. Early on March 28, a surface area of low pressure developed over eastern Texas and reached a minimum barometric pressure of as it pushed into western Tennessee later that day. Winds in the lower levels of the atmosphere intensified to and likewise increased at the surface, contributing to significant warm air advection to the south of a warm front draped across the Appalachian Mountains in North Carolina. By 15:00 UTC, surface dewpoints had surged in excess of 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. To the south of the original area of low pressure, a distinct mesolow developed along the warm front across northern Alabama. This feature first began to form around 18:00 UTC, and within three hours, it had rapidly deepened to a barometric pressure of . This system moved rapidly northeast at speeds up to , thus crossing into eastern North Carolina during the evening hours. As it did so, low-level winds across the eastern Carolinas originated from a southerly direction instead of a southwesterly direction; this shift in flow created a strongly sheared environment across the region. Meanwhile, afternoon temperatures climbed above , contributing to significant destabilization. Convective available potential energy values rose between 2,000–3,000 J/kg into North Carolina, with locally higher values observed in northeastern South Carolina. These environmental conditions bore strong resemblance to