The Dust Bowl is an environmental disaster that hit the Midwest in the 1930s. A combination of a severe water shortage and harsh farming techniques created it. Some scientists believe it was the worst drought in North America in 300 years.
The lack of rain killed the crops that kept the soil in place. When winds blew, they raised enormous clouds of dust. It deposited mounds of dirt on everything, even covering houses. Dust suffocated livestock and caused pneumonia in children. At its worst, the storm blew dust to Washington, D.C.
The drought and dust destroyed a large part of U.S. agricultural production. The Dust Bowl made the Great Depression even worse.
Causes
In 1930, weather patterns shifted over the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. The Pacific grew cooler than normal and the Atlantic became warmer. The combination weakened and changed the direction of the jet stream. That air current carries moisture from the Gulf of Mexico up toward the Great Plains. It then dumps rain when it reaches the Rockies. When the jet stream moved south, rain never reached the Great Plains.
Tall prairie grass once protected the topsoil of the Midwest. But once farmers settled the prairies, they plowed over 5.2 million acres of the deep-rooted grass. Years of over-cultivation meant the soil lost its richness. When the drought killed off the crops, high winds blew the remaining topsoil away. Parts of the Midwest still have not recovered.
As the dust storms grew, they intensified the drought. The airborne dust particles reflected some sunlight back into space before it could reach the earth. As a result, the land cooled. As temperatures dipped, so did evaporation. The clouds never got enough moisture to release rain.