Slideshow: Drought in the Southern U.S. Plains Today Recalls the 1930s Dust Bowl
Strong winds and dry soils are a frightful combination.
The series of dust storms that rolled through the southern Great Plains this winter and spring were as bad as any in living memory. The region’s rainfall deficit is worse now than during the peak of the Dust Bowl, according to the Natural Resources Conservation Service.
Scenes today from southwest Kansas and the panhandles of Oklahoma and Texas are nearly indistinguishable from photos taken nearly 80 years ago during one of America’s worst environmental disasters.
![Like a steamroller, a dust storm approaches Cimarron County in the Oklahoma Panhandle on January 12, 2014. Drought conditions this spring in the southern Great Plains are as bad in any year in living memory, prompting comparisons to the 1930s Dust Bowl. Oklahoma drought Dust Bowl dust storm Cimarron County Great Plains agriculture](https://www.circleofblue.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/OKduststorm-590x442.jpg)
![Giant dust clouds dwarf downtown streets in Elkhart, Kansas during a wind storm in May 1937. Kansas Dust Bowl drought dust storm agriculture Elkhart](https://www.circleofblue.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/ElkhartDustStorm-590x357.jpg)
![Spring dust storms this year in the southern Great Plains blew with such ferocity that they stripped bare the topsoil, revealing the clay hardpan below, seen in the foreground of this photo taken in May 2014 in Cimarron County, Oklahoma. Oklahoma drought dust storms Great Plains agriculture](https://www.circleofblue.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/BlownDustCimarronCounty-590x442.jpg)
![A Dust Bowl farmer in Cimarron County, Oklahoma raises a fence to keep it from being buried under drifting sand in April 1936. Oklahoma Dust Bowl dust storm Cimarron County Great Plains farming agriculture](https://www.circleofblue.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Farmer2-Cimarron-County-Oklahoma-LOC-1000-590x582.jpg)
![A tractor pauses in the field during a dust storm in May 2014 in Stevens County, Kansas. Kansas dust storm farming agriculture Dust Bowl drought Great Plains](https://www.circleofblue.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/StevensCountyKStractor-590x442.jpg)
![A January 2014 cold front pushed rolls of dust through Cimarron County, Oklahoma. Oklahoma drought dust storm Great Plains agriculture](https://www.circleofblue.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Tapp-ranch-590x442.jpg)
![Farm machinery is buried in blown sand in Cimarron County, Oklahoma in April 1936. Oklahoma Dust Bowl dust storm Cimarron County Great Plains farming agriculture](https://www.circleofblue.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/8b27548v-590x580.jpg)
![Dirt covers farm equipment in the field after a May 2014 wind storm in Stevens County, Kansas. Oklahoma drought Dust Bowl dust storm Cimarron County Great Plains agriculture](https://www.circleofblue.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/StevensCountyKSduststorm-590x442.jpg)
![Sand dunes grew almost to barn-height during storms in Liberal, Kansas in March 1936. Kansas Dust Bowl dust storm Liberal Great Plains farming agriculture](https://www.circleofblue.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Liberal2-Kansas-LOC-1000-590x561.jpg)
Click image to enlarge.
![Sand piles up in front of an outhouse in Cimarron County, Oklahoma in April 1936. Oklahoma Dust Bowl dust storm Cimarron County Great Plains farming agriculture](https://www.circleofblue.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/LOC_Rothstein-sand-dune-590x446.jpg)
![A brown haze filtered the sunlight as a dust storm blew across a Wichita County farm field in western Kansas on April 27, 2014. Kansas drought dust storm Wichita County Great Plains agriculture](https://www.circleofblue.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Dust_wichita1_04272014-565x700.jpg)
![Though most houses in this farm district north of Dalhart, Texas had been abandoned by June 1938, the owners of this homestead clung to the land. Texas drought Dust Bowl agriculture Great Plains](https://www.circleofblue.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Farm2-Dalhart-Texas-LOC-1000--590x459.jpg)
Brett writes about agriculture, energy, infrastructure, and the politics and economics of water in the United States. He also writes the Federal Water Tap, Circle of Blue’s weekly digest of U.S. government water news. He is the winner of two Society of Environmental Journalists reporting awards, one of the top honors in American environmental journalism: first place for explanatory reporting for a series on septic system pollution in the United States(2016) and third place for beat reporting in a small market (2014). He received the Sierra Club’s Distinguished Service Award in 2018. Brett lives in Seattle, where he hikes the mountains and bakes pies. Contact Brett Walton
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