80 years ago ultimate 'Duster' swept Great Plains

[wfgodot]

Dusty Daily Oklahoman:

Black Sunday: 80 years ago today, a dust storm like no other rolled into Oklahoma
Tuesday marks the 80th anniversary of the Black Sunday dust storm of April 14, 1935, the worst storm
in a decade when menacing, man-made ‘dusters’ swept across the Great Plains, including Oklahoma.

[video=youtube;vUXGBLTUD8w]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUXGBLTUD8w[/video]

Black Sunday (Wiki)

 

[wfgodot]

Surviving the Dust Bowl: Black Sunday April 14, 1935 (PBS)

How a Dust Storm Inspired a Mass Exodus and a Great Novel (Time)

 

[MsFacetious]

How interesting that it is today that we are having a huge wind storm in another part of the country. :dunno:

 

[i.b.nora]

Two things:

Ken Burns 2 part, 4 hour piece for PBS, The Dustbowl was astoundingly good, and prior to seeing it my knowledge of the actual history of the events over about a decade was miniscule. Its still available to watch for free, just Google it. It should be required viewing in all households.

And, number two, speaking of Google, in addition to Black Sunday, today also marks the 155th anniversary of the first mail delivered by Pony Express on April 14, 1860.
Today’s Google logo has been replaced with a Pony Express game. It's fun but difficult! Try it!

 

[SophieRose]

http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-pc-california-dust-bowl-drought-20150409-story.html

With a slew of statistics projected on the slideshow behind him, California's state climatologist had a stark warning during a Thursday presentation on the severity of the drought.

"You’re looking on numbers that are right on par with what was the Dust Bowl," said the climatologist, Michael Anderson.


Scenes from California's Dust Bowl
http://www.latimes.com/local/great-reads/la-me-c1-drought-timeline-20141210-html-htmlstory.html

 

[RLynne]

"The Worst Hard Time," by Timothy Egan, is a good (if depressing) read on the subject.

 

[SophieRose]

1992 article

Okies--They Sank Roots and Changed the Heart of California : History: Unwanted and shunned, the 1930s refugees from the Dust Bowl endured, spawning new generations. Their legacy can be found in towns scattered throughout the San Joaquin Valley.

http://articles.latimes.com/1992-10-18/local/me-622_1_san-joaquin-valley

An exact count does not exist, but one study estimates that as many as 3.75 million Californians, one-eighth of the state's 30 million population, claim Okie ancestry.