The Black Blizzards of the Dust Bowl: A Scientific Look at the 1930s Climate Disaster

[@weatherboxstudios]

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[@NSRailfan69-20]

@weatherboxstudios have you considered starting up a discord? So that way fans and viewers can post footage of storms or suggest video ideas because I would love to post images of some of the damages from the small tornado outbreak in ga on June 15 2023

[@Richard-p3b]

Will there be enough Water for tubs?

[@orsonzedd]

Stop bullshitting. Journalism has always been awful. Fuck, Yellow Journalism wasn't even created LAST century

[@Salomaeful]

That was a lovely presentation of ground news Oh, and I'm sure the rest of your video will be as wonderfully done as usual :)

[@shawnpitman876]

@@NSRailfan69-20 So have you considered that you can post those images WITHOUT a discord? You're ON A SITE THAT ALLOWS THAT.

[@mariekatherine5238]

I weathered a dust storm in 1966 having a tent trailer for shelter. I was with my family on a cross country trip. To say it was scary is an understatement. There was virtually nothing to keep out the dust and fine sand. We ended up crouched on the floor with the canvas “wings” wetted down, but partially folded over us when the dust came in anyway and the wind threatened to topple the rig. Our Dad ventured outside with a rope tied around his waist and a wet towel tied over his head, to hitch the trailer to the car. It stormed all night, dirt getting into everything and everyone. We spent the next day trying to sweep out the trailer and car. Dad had to grease up the engine before we drove slowly into town. There, the car and trailer went to a truck cleaning business and we went to a motel. I remember standing with my sisters and mom in the shower with dirt flowing from our hair and every part and orifice of our bodies. We took turns, ladies’ shower, gents’ shower, back and forth until the warm water ran out. I had an annoying cough and a few days later, spiked a high fever and a chest cough, hacking up disgusting, dirty phlegm. After two days, I spent three days in a hospital with “dust pneumonia.” The only thing I don’t remember, but my brother and parents did, was getting (and giving) static electric shocks. I’m sure it paled in comparison to the storms of the 1930’s, but I’m glad to have experienced it--once!

[@johnsoutdooradventures3293]

Wow, I'm glad yall survived that dust storm!!! Where did this take place????😢

[@kingpest13]

Wiw, crazy. Ive read a few first hand accounts from the dust bowl days and it sounded not miserable but so very dangerous and deadly. Im glad you guys got out and got to the other side of the damage it caused

[@Beergardening]

Depending on where you were you probably had valley fever or a similar fungal infection. It sucks.

[@MoldySpace]

i always get so excited seeing these uploads and then immediately feel bad like "yay, a storm ruined lives"

[@sandhilltucker]

Gotta crack a few eggs to make an omlette.

[@KawaiiKasai]

That look my family gives me when I get excited about a natural disaster 😅

[@parsnipproductions8875]

Don’t worry we’ll all pay for watching this video when it happens again every 2 years for the next century

[@TubaDragoness]

The storms happened, whether or not we know about them. Might as well dive into the science and learn how it affected lives so we can prevent others in the future from suffering in the same ways!

[@sallyintucson]

Read “The Worst Hard Time”. If you like learning about what it was like living in the “dirty 30’s” you’ll enjoy it.

[@Teverell]

As someone who's never set foot in the USA, I've been oddly fascinated by the Dust Bowl for a while, so imagine my surprise to see one of my favourite weather channels covering it. And of course you bring your usual in-depth look at exactly what's going on with the weather, winds and temperatures. Thank you.

[@youdontknowme5969]

In high school, I hated writing mid-term papers (especially about subjects that I gave no rat's @$$ about LOL) and history classes in general. I grew up in an area where The Dust Bowl happened, and it intrigued me (because weather). So that year, my US History teacher approved me to make my paper about The Dust Bowl, even though her class didn't go into the 1900s. She actually really liked the paper and it helped me pass 😊

[@Senthiuz]

In response to the dust bowl the US planted 48,000 km² of trees across the great plains in a rough line from Canada to Mexico. About 15-20% of the great shelterbelt remains.monochrome. mentioned at 19:44.

[@existentialcrisisactor]

My great grandfather was part of the tree planting in the North Texas panhandle!

[@thatguy2224]

Want to see it again drive I-70 in KS between say Russell to west of Hays. Everything came out of grass again and is back to crops. We went through in June and disability was 0 in some areas due to blowing dust.

[@BryanRombot-sx3pf]

19:00 The picture that you see here is Dorothea Lange's "Migrant Mother" which was taken in Nipomo, California in 1936. The woman pictured by Lange is Florence Owens Thompson. She is seen tending to two of her kids, while the other two kids went into Nipomo to get parts for their car after their car broke down on US Route 101. She was not identified and formally recognized until 1978, when the Modesto Bee tracked her down to a mobile home in Modesto. She passed away on September 16th, 1983. Dorothea Lange's "Migrant Mother" became more than just a symbol of the Dust Bowl, but it also became the symbol of the Great Depression.

[@captainfruitpunch8913]

Im a forester and ecologist from the heart of the (former) tallgrass prairie. You did an excellent job explaining the ecology of the prairie ecosystems! I would love for you to discuss similar weather related ecological events in the future, like the flooding that occurred in northwestern Iowa this past summer. Humans have so heavily altered the hydrology of the prairie pothole regions that we end up causing a lot of flooding that could have been avoided. Great video, as always!

[@nospoon4799]

I did a study once in which i cross referenced dust storms, droughts, floods and hard full hemisphere winters to solar cycles. It is actually a striking correlation. Early this year Earth was hit with a very large geomagnetic storm. Part of the theory on why the sun affects Earths weather is that the sun delivers huge amounts of ionised hydrogen to Earth in these events and via the solar wind. It is said that this combines with Ozone in the upper atmosphere/ionosphere and adds water to Earth. The northern hemisphere has been very wet this year. It has happened all over. It fits the model and I actually predicted the wet summer based on this. And in fact most weather events have tied to this in the decade or so that I have been studying this. I could go on with this for hours so I will stop there 🙄

[@mareedonahue8310]

What scares me the most is how the Midwest is cutting down more trees, opening more land for flat fields, and the topsoil is slowly being blown away. As soon as they harvest the fields, I can’t go outside without getting dirt in my eyes and mouth from the wind. History always repeats itself.

[@richardwade1669]

People do so much recreational tilling (working the ground up) and so much soil blows away. Some fields around me sit six to eight inches lower than the roadside strip of grass. It blows my mind that so many farmers let so much soil blow away unnecessarily.

[@NetherStray]

There are barely any tree lines, too. Too inconvenient for farm equipment I guess? It's just ridiculous. We already have fire risk days here in Indiana, do people really think that they can just keep doing whatever they want to these expanses of flat land that they've created?

[@levitatingoctahedron922]

well what do you want people to eat? keep insisting on an ever growing population and immigration while wanting less land to be farmed. which do you want?

[@Melonist]

​@@levitatingoctahedron922 The US is the biggest exporter of food, they can afford to cut back a bit.

[@Robsham1]

@@Melonist The food is being eaten by someone. What do you want them to eat?

[@Baldevi]

Excellent video, the Dust Bowl should be a lesson and reminder to work with Nature, not ever seek to dominate it again. I lived in Asheville for years, now I am in SW VA. I am heartbroken for my friends there, and two friends are still missing, presumed "Lost" forever. Asheville will never be the same, sadly... But they are already rebuilding in some places, and Chimney Rock is going to be rebuilt in a new configuration, since the river had been rerouted, and has returned to its natural banks. Prayers for Asheville, she still needs so much support.

[@nospoon4799]

It's not just human influence. The solar cycle had a lot to do with the dust bowl.

[@maxthefool]

hey, how are you doing? have things gotten any better? love from tennessee ❤

[@LordVader1094]

​@@nospoon4799Yeah but human made the effects of it many times worse

[@jennteal5265]

I moved to Iowa in 1998 and at the time, farmers would plow their fields after harvest in the fall. Over the next few years I heard about soybean and corn hybrids that could grow through unplowed fields. The talk was that Iowa was losing way too much topsoil from wind erosion and not plowing after harvest would help with that greatly. It's interesting how much this parallels what went wrong in the 30s

[@grmpEqweer]

Would a cover crop of legumes help?

[@sagethearies2]

This is no coincidence that Cleveland, Alabama and every other state that's around these states are in danger. Is it a state? I'm not sure. It's been a long time and I'm not from the US. I have just studied abit of it. My heart prays for all of you's. Please be safe everyone.🙏❤️

[@Senthiuz]

David Brandt, the farmer from the “it ain’t much but its honest work" meme, was a farmer committed to no plow and no till agriculture. Really interesting topic

[@Senthiuz]

​@grmpEqweer Yes, but also non legumes. Legumes are good for nitrogen fixation. Other families and genus' can have other beneficial effects for the soil, such as increasing avaliable calcium, or having root systems which increase water infiltration and retention. A varied mix of cover crops will generally be better for the soil than even the best monocrop.

[@jennteal5265]

@@grmpEqweer They alternate corn and soybeans every year

[@charlayned]

I was born and raised in Amarillo. My paternal grandmother lived there, raised my dad and his 4 other siblings there. She talked about that dust storm and the weather during the time. She talked about wetting towels, blankets, and sheets to put under the door and over the windows but the dust would still leak in. She had dust in everything, including the food.

[@robertterrell3065]

Yeah, I'm from Lubbock, and my grandparents and mother had a dryland cotton farm in Shallowater, TX, just north of Lubbock. My grandmother called them Black Northers. She never used the term Black Blizzards. But they did wet down towels and sheets just like your grandparents did.

[@ullrich]

I wrote an article about a year ago covering droughts, and I was blown away by just how bad this era was. I can't imagine living on a farm that is just buried in dust with those storms making it nearly impossible to go outside for long stretches of time. And all that is on top of the heat and the fact that nothing is growing anymore. It is absolutely essential that people look back and learn from these times so that we don't run headfirst into it again by depleting natural freshwater sources.

[@ToastedNoodle]

at MSU going over this literally today. your timing is impeccable

[@Joescrazypants]

Yo man your still alive

[@cosmictraveler1146]

Go bulldogs if you’re talking about that “MSU” lmao

[@RaiderPlays]

The dust bowl feels like something straight out of an apocalypse film

[@simplsquam]

9:48 you know its about to get wild when he calls the 2011 super outbreak not that unbearable

[@lobogris4806]

2011 it got super hot and dry in texas and other places

[@mailynnrivers2693]

I love the way you narrate weather and tie history and drop names and whatnot. You make this so fascinating and accessible!

[@KermitTheGamer21]

My little sister is literally doing a project about droughts and the Dust Bowl in class right now. This video had impeccable timing!

[@StormsandSaugeye]

I live in New mexico. The wild nature of the region is really evident here. Especially the storms that collapse and begin kicking up monster dust storms like haboobs.

[@Techno_Idioto]

Heh, haboob...

[@levitatingoctahedron922]

haboobs are awesome. we'd get them sometimes in eastern washington. a clear, sunny, windless day, then on the horizon you see a huge wall of dust. then the wall hits and winds strong enough to knock stuff over start blaring all around you. getting hit with haboobs are some of my favorite memories.

[@Legority]

from someone who has a lot of connections to Asheville (personally and with friends), we appreciate your support, and for your absolutely wonderful videos!!

[@motonut4503]

Eyyy I been doing SAR out here north of ashville for weeks now. I love it here but boy it hurts to see

[@ericlane3256]

Everytime I watch a weatherbox video, I realize there's still much to learn about meteorology, including past climate disasters. Great to see another one!

[@tornadotrx]

This was so good man. Always love videos from you

[@Bootmahoy88]

Had the farmers known how to properly prepare their growing fields for the next season, despite the drought, none of this catastrophe would've occurred. It's terribly sad. Tragic.

[@skybluskyblueify]

Cover crops?

[@kilroywashere0361]

The issue is they did know what to do. They knew how to handle the fields. They didnt

[@terawatt1]

@@kilroywashere0361 a lot actually didn't - there was a phenomenon called "briefcase farmers", which were city folk who got hyped the concept of the Plains as a place where the wheat would grow without any supervision and make them money (kind of a 20s version of crypto...) - so a lot of businessmen invested in this money-printing machine by buying a swathe of land, having a few (usually even their own city-)labourers plant wheat and then going away to then return with those same labourers to harvest it by autumn. Of course these guys knew jackshit about farming, but while their output probably wasn't as much as experienced farmers', it wasn't their subsistence... it was what you'd nowadays call "passive income". Now combine those inexperienced businessmen exhausting the soil like they dug up a bunch of metal with a great depression that leaves a lot of those same briefcase farmers with nothing but their shirt on and no one left to even care for those farms at all and you have all the ingredients for soil degradation never seen before or since.

[@AlohaChips]

@@kilroywashere0361 I wonder, did enough of them? Or were there some that knew better mixed with many get-rich-quick schemers who had no extensive background in farming, but who were enabled by the ease of using the steel plow, and all the land being handed out by the government almost like party favors? Seems to me from looking at the advertisements for farming out west that were included in the video that any old able-bodied nobody was being encouraged to go out there and grab land, start planting, and harvest for the amazing profit. The low bar for entry + high profit would 100% be a magnet for greed-driven profit chasing by the ignorant, as well as those who would have known better. In addition, I think people in the late 1800s to early 1900s were extremely enamored and even less cynical than people are today with the advancements industrialization and science were bringing them a faster and faster pace. My sense from looking at the historical buzz about the World's Fairs back in that time period is that many saw these things more like magic that had only good parts and benefits, and not a new way of doing things that could have serious drawbacks they needed to be cautious about before going all-in. Even in the more modern day it's still frequent to see in larger scale disasters that only a small number of people have a real sense of the potential damage, and they either cover it up or get ignored for the sake of all the $$$ to be gained. Radium, DDT, Teflon ... the list goes on.

[@TheFuelInjected]

@Bootmahoy88 Thats debatable. The Southern Canadian prairies are home to a semi arid desert known as Pallisers Triangle. It's called this because when Palliser explored the area in the mid 1800s he noted that it is full of sand dunes and not suitable for agriculture. It stayed this way until the 1930s by the 40s the sand dunes had started stabilizing and vegetated. Today the only remaining dunes are in The Great Sand Hills, while the rest is generally productive ranchland or irrigated farmland. This shows that while poor agricultural practices contributed to the dust bowl, it did not directly cause it, since the same effect was being seen in regions where agriculture wasn't yet taking place. More likely it was a result of a changing climate, particularly the end of the "little ice age".

[@juliusmeyer8535]

Mate, I only understand half of what you talk about (maybe also because I’m german and I miss some of the vocabulary) But i love your videos. They are so well made and you talk about it with passion. Keep up the great work, and thanks for giving me something to watch, rewatch and wait for.

[@jarboyo4]

don’t worry, im a native english speaker and a ton goes over my head too. im sure the language barrier doesn’t help! im just sayin its not just you. :)

[@mondobizarrro5468]

clicked the picosecond i saw the notification. this channel has helped me understand how the weather around me works, and has made me much more weather aware. it has also made me more interested in weather from the mundane, to the beautiful, and even to the awesome destruction it can cause.

[@CommandLineVulpine]

Funny enough I was thinking about the Dust Bowl lately. Its one of those things they teach you about in the 2nd grade, then never talk about again.

[@princibles]

9:11 When this track plays, you KNOW you're getting some awesome weather stuff explained

[@usedbeer]

I can't believe i caught this video so soon. I love the videos you produce and can't wait for the next one already!

[@tarrotpatch]

8:06 Lisa was one of my lecturers for a course I took on climate science! Very lovely and passionate scientist. Funny hearing her mentioned, I guess environmental science is a pretty small world

[@Dreazy26]

WEATHERBOX I GET SO SO EXCITED WHEN YOU UPLOAD. I love the channel so much. keep up the good work brother

[@zachsteiner]

Oh this is cool! I haven’t thought about the dust bowl since I was in elementary school learning history. I’m a huge weather nerd nowadays so I love learning about the intricacies involved with these historic events.

[@saffytaffy]

Love your science teacher vibes and enthusiasm. If I was a teacher I'd definitely play your channel in my classroom.

[@kc9aop]

This is a fantastic topic. You've made terra forma a larger portion of the video. I'm a weather nerd and all of your content appeals to me. Directly correlating land events with weather will (hopefully) increase your viewership. Great work. Your channel is the only one I have set to get alerts. I anxiously await your next video.

[@thenickstrikebetter]

I saw a black blizzard once. Couldn't beat it only got like 5% on it. Tough level.

[@SOS-BFV]

GEOMETRY DASH

[@rocbot9479]

Looking for this comment.

[@boston_and_maine]

i was looking for a gd comment because of the video title, knowing how chronically online part of the gd community is 😭

[@uzaiyaro]

0:45 What a cute spider!

[@STMills14]

This is a really educational and well made video. I had not realized previously the significance humans had on the mid 1930s Dust Bowl. As someone who spends a lot of time in west Kansas, it still gets very dusty often! Hopefully the land can be managed in a way to avoid another event of similar magnitude.

[@levitatingoctahedron922]

humans have always had a significant impact on the region, ever since they've been there. the great plains are a man made ecosystem. burning foliage and intentional expansion of buffalo herds has been going on there for millennia before europeans ever showed up. it's why I'm a bit confused when people talk about restoring nature to the region, it's literally not possible.

[@TKRVideoCentral]

Terrific piece as always, Steve - thank you for taking the time to really go indepth on topics so many others miss!

[@heatherhillman1]

I grew up in Nebraska. We learned about and made soil conservation posters in 3rd grade. Later, I moved to the east coast and found out that they learned basically nothing about soil conservation or the Dust Bowl. I know it isn't a priority to those that get plenty of rain per year, but I was dismayed that such a big piece of American history was just ignored.

[@dirtbagdeacon]

I remember learning in college that the Oglalla Aquifer has a recharge rate of 80,000 years. Wonder what the Midwest is going to do....

[@calliehester7165]

checking in from wnc here! thanks for the Asheville t-shirt shout out :)

[@b.p.879]

This was absolutely fascinating and extremely well delivered and produced, I'm subbing!

[@liamtahaney713]

Love the channel but suggesting media in the 20s and 30s was unbiased is just...what..?

[@kidpixdeluxe4]

where did he say this???

[@zachgray4767]

I always love your in-depth analysis that doesn't shy away from the hard science, but I also appreciate when you tie in the human impact and historical significance of these weather events. Excellent video!

[@OuterGalaxyLounge]

This is the best explanation of the Dust Bowl I have ever seen.

[@AlbertoLopez-mn8ms]

I don't know why there's so many sponsored ads for ground news. It's not like the regular YT viewer goes through that many news items and investigations ourselves

[@levitatingoctahedron922]

part of the information war. the irony with ground news is it's a bubble set in the modern western bipartisan narrative, which is very far from "unbiased".

[@nathanirby4273]

Nice Asheville shirt

[@azar094]

0:11 I hate being bipolar its awsome

[@shiningarmor2838]

I'm naming my next heavy metal album "Black Blizzards"

[@youdontknowme5969]

🤘😑

[@suncoolbreeze2656]

I just ❤your videos. They are informative, never boring and presented with genuine enthusiasm. Thank you 😊

[@hippopotomonsterous]

I’ve always been curious as to the meteorological mechanisms that generated the dust storms during that period, thanks for the dive into it! You’re videos are amazing keep up the great work.

[@Lumilias]

My grandmother would tell me stories about the dust storms when she was a child in Wichita KS. The dust got everywhere, no matter what you did. You had to be inside during the storms and even then, the dust would seep through every crack and hole and get inside the house. I also particularly remember her mentioning the static electricity shocks people would get when touching, like you mentioned. My family had owned a farm for a while, so these modern farming techniques were pointed out to me as a post-dust bowl development, as well as every tree line that was suspiciously in a single line. There are so many of those trees across Oklahoma and Kansas that unless you are aware of the wind break trees, you would have no idea why they lined up so perfectly.

[@zyphyr7767]

The geometry dash community is gonna eat this one up

[@Silly_lalalala]

How did you know HOW DID YOU KNOWWWW

[@Hurtjuice1001-gt5vo]

I saw the title and I knew someone was gonna say it

[@surgejohnson9197]

was looking for a comment like this 😭

[@Tornnnado]

that's why I'm here 😭

[@freespeechordeath7826]

My grandmother was born in 1920 and lived in Western Tennessee. I recall as a child her speaking of storms that came in the 1930s that "rained muddy rain." The clouds were brown, and when the rain dried, a dusty film would be left on everything she said. She had a paper stationary envelope with some of the dust saved in it. It was lost after she passed away.

[@UpperlevelJeffstream]

I worked at a local water service in Southern Kansas. The Aquifer used to be so clean it just needed trace chlorination at pump stations. Now its so contaminated by nitrates the town has to fight for grants to build a new treatment plant. The aquifer drainage rate is mitigated with reservoirs mostly. To what effect I don't know. What I do know is things could get ugly fast if it runs out.

[@Straswa]

Great video weatherbox. Thanks for covering the Dust Bowl.

[@TormentedEnd]

You should talk about the blizzard of 1888 or the Teton-Yellowstone Tornado

[@worblergworbler]

as someone living in asheville ty for bringing awareness!! it's definitely been crazy here

[@WalterWhiteFootballSharing]

I learned the Depression hit wheat farming sooner. The wheat boom was WW1! Europe couldn't produce its wheat with all its farmers drafted in desperate war in Britain, France, Germany, and Russian empire had Poland's wheatfields. Boomtime for US food production, a vast expansion of production on high plains. 1920s prices cratered as the veterans went back to farms. The dust bowl was just total destruction but the surviving wheat farmers could sort of make a living with New Deal programs buying surplus.

[@OriginalRaveParty]

Three things spoken quickly together sounded lunatic to me. 1 - Concreting the plains 😒 2 - Chicken wiring dust to the ground 😏 3 - Farmers dying rather than accepting help 😏

[@DM-h2h77f8gh]

Thanks Steve for another great analysis of a major weather event from history. For those who want more details of the event, especially what is was like to live through it, the PBS American Experience documentary "Surviving the Dust Bowl" is an excellent telling of the story, with numerous interviews with many who were children during it, as well as extensive film footage and photographs from the time. Find somewhere you can watch it using your favorite search engine.

[@timthehistorian]

I'm an southerner who's only been to the tall grass prairies, but the sparse population of the short grass has always drawn me to that region.

[@crowvii]

Fantastic as always! Loved this cross disciplinary video!

[@mfcrumbs]

Y’all dont understand I be waiting for this dudes uploads daily I’m happy asf

[@Someone-ex7ok]

BABE WAKE UP WEATHERBOX POSTED 🗣️🗣️🔥🔥🔥‼️‼️⁉️

[@pauletxfish4976]

the book "The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust" does a very good explanation of the people who lived in those areas and what most did (stay). Only a third tried leaving but once they got to California , many returned with in a few years do to NO work for them. The contour plowing really didnt work and was less accepted by the farms then. It works great where there is significant elevation changes but, If you have traveled those areas of Kansa, SE Colorado, Ok and Texas the way you plowed flat land didnt matter. his short and fairly good video was ok but doing a deeper research into it all and the those who survived it is worth the effort.

[@Wilsons-World]

Music at 4:00?

[@Tanzles]

I’m from California. My city got a lot of its cultural heritage from people who traveled here after the dust bowl, particularly its country music scene.

[@physetermacrocephalus2209]

New sub. Let's get this guy over 100k

[@BlueJBirb]

Excellent Video! Kind of hope we get a video on the Mississippi flood the few years before the Dust Bowl, as that is also a very interesting weather topic that's not covered much.

[@OneAndOnlyBingus]

Babe wake up. Weatherbox posted.

[@steveschu]

Lame

[@Meatman8089]

I'm so glad to see you steveposting!

[@loficampingguy9664]

What an excellent video! The Dust Bowl is something that you learn about in school a couple times, and sure the big thing to take away from it is the human-nature interaction and proper land use and stewardship. But it's so fascinating to hear about the meteorological aspect too, made even better by the excellent narrator.

[@existentialcrisisactor]

I grew up in Spearman TX in the 90s. The "hills" I rode my bicycle on were the mounds left from the dust bowl. We have family photos of my grandparents as kids during this.

[@Northern.Town.]

I really appreciate the science in this one! Keep it up!!!!

[@janreed99]

Excellent historical and meteorological explanation!

[@briannas.1912]

Idk if we have the climate data yet but the summer of 2023 was a rough drought as well

[@JakkzOfficial]

black blizzard geometry dash reference

[@Tornnnado]

literally why I clicked on the video 😭

[@Pisburger]

he hearted the comment, weatherbox confirmed played gd?!??!?!?!

[@Pisburger]

@@Tornnnado i came here bc of weatherbox upload BUT immediately after i seen the title i immediately checked the comments bc i knew there would be a geometry dash comment :)

[@jacobthayer236]

Love Ground News. Bring back real journalism.

[@DangerB0ne]

The only reason I grew up in California versus Oklahoma was the Dust Bowl. My great grandmother's family had to move west because of the Dust Bowl. She had stories of her experience, but she rarely told them, it was a painful memory.

[@noelleelizabeth9991]

Omg thank you for making this! Been fascinated by the dust bowl since I was a kid.

[@Tornnnado]

this is a certified extreme demon moment 👏

[@WTH1812]

Very efficient coverage of "what man hath wrought". The farming techniques leading into the dust bowl, absence of tree windbreaks, lack of rain catching berms to capture rainfall let it sink instead of running off. This is an important example of why "that's not how grandpa did it" is not always a good answer.

[@emjean22]

Just watched "Hold your breath" so this is perfect ❤

[@Mars0984]

I have my met degree and you combined soil science and climatology into one amazing piece. Nice work

[@weatherboxstudios]

Thank you that means a lot!

[@autumo_]

love the asheville shirt❤️

[@DrewskisBrews]

This was really well done, thank you!

[@njunderground82]

I totally agree with your opening. I've been to every state in the US, most several times. The west is gorgeous, but there is something also beautiful and majestic about the Great Plains. Nebraska and the Dakotas in particular have some really beautiful landscapes.

[@cobiepal]

Imagine getting lost in one You are surrounded in darkness, unable to find others, feeling lonely And in this helpless situation, you hear sax edm getting louder and louder as the wind starts picking up speed

[@kiltedcanuck]

Grasslands National Park (Canada) = best national park. Thanks for talking about the prairies!

[@weatherboxstudios]

One of my favorites!

[@peterroach3045]

This is truly excellent work

[@michaelimbesi2314]

I think there certainly is an argument to be made that it was actually a mistake to settle the short grass prairie. Using unsustainable practices to try to grow crops in a barren desert doesn’t make any more sense in Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas than it does in Arizona or California.

[@joshuahawkins9093]

Thank you for another wonderful video. Might sound a little dumb but I really appreciate your passion for your craft.

[@colinlove5062]

Excellent video, all the contextual information to make these connections has been out there and it’s extremely pertinent. The story of the climate crisis of the 1930’s may even be under looked by just focusing on the dust bowl. Going back to the turn of the 20th century the beginning of rapid industrialization and urbanization combined. The introduction of mass production of the automobile and the proliferation and increased height and size of skyscrapers brought incredible economic change. The mass injection of greenhouse gases from construction and industry seems to be the hidden ingredient at a macro level. While as this video so succinctly demonstrates the introduction of new farming technology while not grasping potential consequences drove conditions at the micro or more local level. This is a very interesting case study as desertification had set in altering the climate and turning the high plains into a desert. Adapting new farming practices to hold in the soil halted the desertification before all the fertile topsoil was lost. Best practices in plowing helped restore the integrity of the soil on the plains. Restoration of farming mimicked the large scale return of a biome which respirated H2O back into the atmosphere. The story of the High Plains is the central drama but there’s much more going on I believe. The First World War saw a massive effort by all the involved parties to mass produce weapons and equipment. Vast amounts of greenhouse gases were produced while the destruction of the war was confined to a limited area until 1918. That is until the collapse of the provisional government of the Russian Republic with the Bolshevik Revolution & onset of civil war and wars for independence. Large scale input of greenhouse gases happened without the same destruction of production capacity as in WW2. At the same time in North America the upper Great Lakes region was subjected to modern industrialized logging. Northern Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota were nearly completely clear cut with regrowth not returning until the 50’s. 1930 coincides with the clear cutting of the last and most rugged lands around Western Lake Superior. The loss of the green eastern buttress of the former tall grass may have contributed to a drying of central North America. The Great Lakes region is a sink of moisture in the center of the continent though it generally effect’s weather directly to the south and east. The destruction of the biome in the upper Great Lakes may have had a major impact on the climate as it was yet another guard rail moderating the climate locally in North America lost. The Great Lakes region acts as a buffer in the summer to the most extreme heat building from the south and west. While in the winter it acts as a buffer from the most extreme cold building from the north and west. Each of these extremes were expressed in 34 and 36 and each of these extremes are part of a cycle can fan dry conditions. Looking in the opposite direction the desert south west and Great Basin saw a half century or more of logging in support of mining as well as destruction of wetlands to for irrigation. The climate of the inter mountain west is extremely fragile as we know all too well today. An expression of hot and dry conditions building in the southwest and expanding outwards into the high plains may be a natural progression of desertification in North America. The high plains after all are the rain shadow of the Rockies and the high plains of New Mexico and west Texas are mostly in the 10 inches or less range of rainfall. This transitional region makes the high plains all too vulnerable to desertification as we now know. The massive area heat waves of 34 and the massive area of record cold of 36 may be in part of an expression of the degradation of guard rail transitional areas surrounding the changeable plains. Slipping back around to the greater question I’ve been wondering about. I believe that the question of how large scale total war has affected climate is a study that’s woefully neglected. The downfall of Russia as a major industrial power as it ripped itself apart in civil war saw a drop in emissions. While simultaneously the chaos of central and eastern Europe reorganizing into its modern shape was riven with smaller conflicts and social and political upheaval. The victorious Allied powers saw economic collapse and political instability and or violence. Only in the United States did the end of the war bring more prosperity and economic growth. Although the mid 1920’s saw economic revival in Europe as Germany and Italy stabilized politically and economic growth picked back up. The wavy uneven nature of the growth of modern industrial society makes trying to think about modeling this phenomenon a nightmare. Any changes take years to kick in as far as we know and while intensive modern human activity is linked to climate change the line connecting X to Y to Z is often not entirely clear. Massive ecological changes in the North American landscape allowed for trends to be magnified but nothing climatologically happens in isolation. Perhaps the rainy prosperous period for farmers on the High Plains coincided with the massive carbon from WW1 and the prior period of economic expansion. Perhaps the massive decrease in economic activity across the world with the exception of North America in the early 1920’s buffered prior inputs. The European economic recovery and the height of the roaring 20’s coincide with the onset of the climate conditions that made the dust bowl possible with an off set of a couple years. While there is a happy ending to the story of the dust bowl as best practices in agriculture primed the land for recovery. The Great Depression saw one of the steepest declines in carbon inputs. Perhaps it’s possible that the huge reduction in C02 slowed changes the atmosphere allowing for a stabilization and return to more normal patterns.

[@FrankieEm]

Thank you for this! My great grandparents and my grandmother fled the plains and moved to California! My grandmother even divorced her husband to do it. She was over it! She even got chased out of her house by ball lightning once! I’d be over it, too and ready to go by any means necessary. My great grandmother ended up being a maid for Samuel Goldwyn of MGM studios. It’s wild to think about. ❤

[@williamtoad8040]

Those New Deal programs and new farming methods really did help save the plains cause an even DRIER period from 1950-57 (post 1951 flood north of Texas and Oklahoma) occurred in the southern and central states plains after that. In 1956, Phoenix, Az, Dallas, Chicago and Miami all recorded their driest year on record (Chicago’s would be broken in 1962 by 0.1”) all these records stand to this day.

[@danesorensen1775]

America's farming boom and bust had echoes here in Australia too. 23,000 returning soldiers (British as well as Australian) were resettled on blocks of around 1,500 acres by one 1916 Act of Parliament alone, but it turned out they didn't necessarily know anything about farming, especially in a country where the climate and soil are quite different. Today, Australian farmers know to plough much shallower than Europeans do to avoid picking up a layer of sub-surface salt: they didn't know this in the Twenties, so they accidentally turned the land they'd been given into Carthage. Between that and the U.S. over-producing and crashing the price of grain, farmers went bust at a shocking rate. One WA district reports that out of 5,000 resettled soldiers, only 3,500 were still on the land in 1929 - and that's before the Depression even starts. Come to think of it, the Dust Bowl was probably a factor in Australian emerging from the Depression slightly earlier than the U.S. (although we were earlier into it as well - long story!).

[@grant0617]

Star Cadet got a new shirt 😂 Edit: just saw the ending. Good man.

[@criticalthinking3709]

From Kansas and I always wondered why the countryside had miles of trees along every road.

[@PinkPatriot]

This was absolutely fascinating as a Californian to Nebraska transplant. I always wondered where all these trees came from in the middle of the Great Plains haha

[@AJKPenguin]

Black Blizzard doesn't mean Oreo Overload at Dairy Queen, y'all! Well done @weatherbox! Aside: Most states had their almanac heat records in the 1930s. And Nebraska has the only National Forest entirely planted by humans.

[@ethanswanson9209]

I’ve seen many non-irrigated fields of corn in the short grass prairie region. Seed companies have developed varieties that can do quite decent in those areas.

[@ethanbiemer78]

When I lived in Amarillo in 2012-2015 I probably seen 6 different dust storms with the worst in 2013