Throwback: The Dust Bowl

Drought is one of the many natural disasters. However, the infinite Dust Bowl, plagued this country's mid section during the worst financial crisis the world has ever seen. From 1930 to 1939, extreme drought was felt on about 80% of American soil. Take a look below at the drought monitor from July 1934 courtesy of the National Weather Service. Twenty-six states were experiencing extreme drought



















at this time.  They called it the "Dust Bowl", because not only was it a devastating drought but there was also many dust storm that occurred during this time as well. The people that lived in these areas through this time called these dust storms "black blizzard", because of all the dust and dirt it would bring. I found a photo from the Weather Channel that shows a dust storm that is on the horizon.

Many people left these baldly affected areas during this time to escape these terrible conditions, however they only found that much of the country was experiencing drought as well job scarce.

The "Dust Bowl" was much more than just a drought. There were a couple of factors that went into this natural disaster. Firstly, many didn't have the agricultural knowledge that we have today. These techniques that we now use today include crop rotation, cover crops and ways to prevent wind erosion. This lack of knowledge was the cause of many dust storms throughout the drought.

Another problem that environmentalist claim made the drought even worst was that farmers removed most of the prairie grass that was in place. This grass had deep roots so it wouldn't blow away and also kept some moisture in the soil as well. They say that this was also a large cause in all of the dust storms that occurred.

Although technology can't protect us from droughts, we have learned alot from this horrific event to help generations to aware and prepared.