Dust Bowl

Also found in: Dictionary, Thesaurus, Wikipedia.

Dust Bowl,

the name given to areas of the U.S. prairie states that suffered ecological devastation in the 1930s and then to a lesser extent in the mid-1950s. The problem began during World War I, when the high price of wheat and the needs of Allied troops encouraged farmers to grow more wheat by plowing and seeding areas in prairie states, such as Kansas, Texas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico, which were formerly used only for grazing. After years of adequate yields, livestock were returned to graze the areas, and their hooves pulverized the unprotected soil. In 1934 strong winds blew the soil into huge clouds called "dusters" or "black blizzards," and in the succeeding years, from December to May, the dust storms recurred. Crops and pasture lands were ruined by the harsh storms, which also proved a severe health hazard. The uprooting, poverty, and human suffering caused during this period is notably portrayed in John SteinbeckSteinbeck, John,
1902–68, American writer, b. Salinas, Calif., studied at Stanford. He is probably best remembered for his strong sociological novel The Grapes of Wrath, considered one of the great American novels of the 20th cent.
..... Click the link for more information. 's The Grapes of Wrath. Through later governmental intervention and methods of erosion-prevention farming, the Dust Bowl phenomenon has been virtually eliminated, thus left a historic reference.

Bibliography

See D. Worster, Dust Bowl: The Southern Plains in the 1930s (1979); T. Egan, The Worst Hard Time (2005); K. Burns, dir., The Dust Bowl (documentary, 2012).

dust bowl

[′dəst ‚bōl]

(climatology)

A name given, early in 1935, to the region in the south-central United States afflicted by drought and dust storms, including parts of Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Texas, and Oklahoma, and resulting from a long period of deficient rainfall combined with loosening of the soil by destruction of the natural vegetation; dust bowl describes similar regions in other parts of the world.

dust bowl

a semiarid area in which the surface soil is exposed to wind erosion and dust storms occur

Dust Bowl

the. the area of the south central US that became denuded of topsoil by wind erosion during the droughts of the mid-1930s

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

Mentioned in ?

References in periodicals archive ?

Human suffering during the Dust Bowl years was widespread, and food insecurity was common: "It has been largely forgotten that some Americans starved during the Dust Bowl years" (McLeman et al.

"How the Weather Was": Anthropogenic Climate Change and Environmental Damage in Hemingway's Green Hills of Africa

Dust Bowl Lanes will be able to wall off two of its eight lanes for private parties of 16 to 20 people, O'Connor said.

Beer & bowling for Christmas

The MVDL created imagery loaded with reminders of the US Dust Bowl on the southern Great Plains, in the semi-arid West.

'Dust Bowls', TVAs and snowy river waters: John Heyer, The Valley is ours and an early post-war 'image of Australia'

In Refugees From Dust and Shrinking Land: Tracking the Dust Bowl Migrants (NBER Working Paper No.

Tracking the dust bowl migrants of the 1930s

Not bad for a hobo troubador from the North Down Dust Bowl.

An advance towards greatness; BANGOR SONGWRITER FOY VANCE HAS BEEN PLYING HIS TRADE ACROSS THE GLOBE TO CRITICAL ACCLAIM

'Dust Bowl' will also include a 20-minute documentary that will explain the album and put each song into context.

Grant Maloy Smith to Headline KIAI (Karate Instruction Assistance Initiative) Kyoshi Strong Concert

Models are more attuned to droughts caused by La Ni[+ or -]a's colder sea surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean, which likely triggered the multi-year Dust Bowl drought throughout the 1930s.

1934: Worst N. American Drought in 1,000 Years

The Followill brothers, along with one lucky cousin, are saying, "See y'all later" to their simple roots in lush Nashville and heading back to the barren dust bowl of the Middle East after a four year absence.

Kings of Leon are "Coming" again! Dubai's Atlantis will soon sound that much better

The same year, 1939, the author elaborated in a letter that his goal in writing the book was "to rip a reader's nerves to rags" by laying bare the life of the Dust Bowl migrants with whom he had spent time.

The ecology of wrath

The 1930s Dust Bowl era of America is known in large part through the fictional works of author John Steinbeck.

An Owl on Every Post

Ms Patrice, 43, said: "It's been like a dust bowl. It was a real cowboy job.

'COWBOY' REPAIRS DANGER; Road now a skid pan

Four Blue Stars in the Window: One Family's Story of the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl, and the Duty of a Generation is a Midwest family memoir by Barbara Eymann Mohrman, whose discovery of a WW II keepsake box in her basement prompted her to learn more about her father's military service, her family history, and ultimately, some hidden family secrets.