Quantifying Dust Bowl Storms

1
Quantifying Dust Bowl Storms

• By
• Sean King
• ME449 Air Quality

2
Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Why was there a dust bowl?
• Maps of the Dust Bowl Storms
• How did the dust bowl end?
• Conclusion

3
Introduction

• The object of this study to to locate and
  quantify dust storms that occurred during the
  dust bowl period of the 1930s
• Dust storm information was extracted form
  articles in the Monthly Weather Review. The
  severity of the storms was objectively determined
  and applied to the data.
• This report will breakdown the individual storms
  from 1936 to 1939 and give their location and
  severity.
• Reasons why the dust bowl came about
• Pictures of dust bowl storm distribution
• How did the dustbowl end?

4
Causes for the dust bowl

• In the late 19thcentuaury , the population of the
  southern plains exploded due to new settlers,
  most farmers
• From 1879 to 1887, phenomenally heavy rains fell
  on a patch of the High Plains from Texas to
  Canada. This gave false impressions of the usual
  rainfall in the region to the new settlers.
• Crop production shifted from a variety of crops,
  used as fallbacks if one failed to predominantly
  wheat production
• Farming took over land once considered sufficient
  only for grazing of livestock
• The appearance of modern mechanical farm
  equipment encouraged farmers to plow up more land
  and to plant on acreage that was otherwise
  unusable
• Not recognizing the problems of initiating
  massive agricultural programs meant farmers had
  no contingency plans when the drought hit.
• Repeated drought and farming of marginally
  productive acreage was intensified by a lack of
  soil conservation methods

5
Maps of the dust storms
Dust Storms 1935-1938
6
Maps of the dust storms
Dust Storms of 1939
7
Maps of the dust storms
Large Area Dust Storms for 36-39
Not included are the dust storms in the Southern
Great Plains on the level of 5.
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Maps -Explanation

• In the years 1936 to 1938 there was a fairly
  scattered distribution of dust storms around the
  midwest, with a few outliers in the northeast and
  northwest.
• 1939 brough about a greater number and more sever
  storms.
• The storms in 1939 that were in the same areas
  that there had been in the previous 3 years saw
  increased dust activity.
• New locations experienced dust activity, some
  fairly severe storms. Most of these new locations
  were in Texas and Oklahoma.
• The slide of the state storms gives a general
  idea which states had the most widely affected
  areas.
• The data set that was used to plot this data can
  be found here.

9
Maps depicting frequency of dust activity in
early 1936
10
Maps - Explanation

• Note that the center of the frequency
  distribution of the dust storms moves slightly to
  the north from March through May.
• Also note that in June there was more than one
  center of peak dust activity, as the frequency
  overall increases.
• Also in June the absolute maximum of dust
  activity frequency occurred in North Dakota,
  instead of in the Southern Plains, indicating
  that there is more than one specific region
  affected by the dust storms.

11
Maps
depicting Frequency and Severity of Dust Activity
in March 1936
Note that the most frequent dust activity occurs
at areas are at the edge of the most severe
section for the storms for the month
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Description of a storm

• Details describing a trip from Dodge City, KS to
  various spots in the dust bowl, February 17,
  1937, by a weather bureau officer.
• Before 6am, light dust was blowing through Dodge
  City, with visibility a little over a mile.
• Light dust was present on the way to Liberal, KS,
  where at 10 miles out, dense dust was
  encountered. This brought visibility down between
  15 and 20 feet.
• Staying on the road was difficult. After over an
  hour, the 10 miles were covered.
• Next stop Hooker, OK, while heavy blowing of dust
  was still present.
• Frequent stops were needed along the way because
  visibility was reduced to near zero for periods.
• Three hours and forty five minutes were needed to
  drive the 23 miles between towns.
• Drifts several feet high were noted along the
  way.
• Finely powered dust was everywhere.
• More deserted farmhouses were passed than
  inhabited ones.

13
How it was resolved

• New Deal relief and conservation programs
• Government Agencies helped out
• The Southwest Agricultural Association SAA
• Federal Surplus Relief Corporation FSRC
• New Soil conservation practices
• Chisel plowing digging deep into the soil and
  leaving large chunks of dirt intact, the ground
  itself could perform as a windbreak
• Lister plowing, where gullies were cut deep for
  windbreaks
• Planting of hardy plants like Kaffir and Sudan
  grass
• Spreading the sand out in thin patches to allow
  the wind to redeposit it.

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Conclusion

• Rapid population growth, increase in land farmed,
  new farming practices, and the uniform wheat crop
  dried out the soil in the American Southern Great
  Plains.
• The great dust storms and the dust bowl mainly
  affected the south central portion of the United
  States, predominately the Texas panhandle, parts
  of Oklahoma, Colorado, and New Mexico.
• Seasonality of dust storms seems to be centered
  around the spring and summer months.
• Through the farmers conservation efforts and
  federal relief programs that helped them along,
  the dust bowl was finally brought under control

15
Sources

• For latitude and longitude positions
  http//www.bcca.org/misc/qiblih/latlong_us.html
• http//www.digital-neighbor.com
• Dustbowl history
• http//freespace.virgin.net/john.cletheroe/usa_can
  /usa/dbowl2.htm
• http//www.mindspring.com/jwar/dust/dirty.htm
• http//www.swosu.edu/bryantr/1614/ppt/c6pt1/sld00
  1.htm
• http//www.ptsi.net/user/museum/dustbowl.html
• CAPITA Dustbowl Files
• R. J. Martin, Duststorms of February and March
  1936 in the United States The Monthly Weather
  Review, p87-88, April 1936
• R. J. Martin, Duststorms in the United States,
  April 1936 The Monthly Weather Review, p137,
  April 1936

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Sources

• R. J. Martin, Duststorms of May 1936 in the
  United State The Monthly Weather Review, p176,
  May 1936
• R. J. Martin, Duststorms of August-December 1936
  in the United States The Monthly Weather Review,
  p429, December 1936
• R. J. Martin, Duststorms of January-April 1937
  in the United States The Monthly Weather Review,
  p151-152, April 1937
• R. J. Martin, Duststorms of 1938 in the United
  States The Monthly Weather Review, p12-15,
  January 1939
• R. J. Martin, Duststorms of 1939 in the United
  States The Monthly Weather Review, p446-451,
  February 1940
• J. P. Kohler, Duststorms in the United States,
  June 1936 The Monthly Weather Review, p206, June
  1936
• H.F. Choun, Duststorms in the Southwestern
  Plains Area The Monthly Weather Review, p195,
  June 1936
• Pictures provided by www.discovery.com