An extratropical cyclone developed along the Great Lakes, and a low pressure area moved into the Gulf coast on March 16, enabling the development for a severe weather outbreak. ON March 17, the NWS SPC issued an Enhanced Risk for severe weather, noting that dangerous thunderstorms were expected. The resulting PDS severe thunderstorm watch covered most of the central states, and a tornado watch was also issued for some of these areas as the setup improved, and several tornadoes, all of them weak, touched down that day over northern Mississippi, Arkansas and Tennessee. The same alert level was issued for the next 3 days, and on March 19, the strongest tornado of the outbreak sequence touched down outside of Owensboro, Kentucky, which would later be rated an EF3. 2 EF2s were also reported tha