In Keystone American History Honors we have recently been learning about the Dust Bowl.  This occurred in a time known as the Great Depression out west.  Frequent dust storms occurred during this time.  A dust storm is when the wind picks up dust/dirt from the ground and carries it through the air.  When it makes contact with your skin it burns, and you can’t breathe.  Some people caught in them died of suffocation.

The Dust Bowl was a big deal during the 1930s, because it affected the crops that were used for food.  Some of the factors that led up to the Dust Bowl were poor agriculture practices, and a severe drought that was plaguing the area.  During the time not many people knew how their agriculture techniques were affecting their land.  They didn’t know how to change the plants they planted every few years, or that they shouldn’t remove all the plants/trees from their land.  Without the roots of plants to hold the ground together the dust will blow freely when the wind picks up.  Another factor was the drought.  It hadn’t rained in a while.  This led to the ground being extremely dusty and loose.

The outcome of this event was that 2.5 million people fled the west, and headed to an area away from the storms.  10% of these people fled to California.  This led to problems for the U.S, because many of the farmers had left their land, and now California had a much larger population than it used to.  The U.S. realized this was a problem, and some of the New Deal programs were created to get farmers back, and help repopulate the drought affected areas.  This drought and frequent dust storms led to this being one of the most remembered weather related moments in the history of the United States of America.