|
|
|
|
Wisc. Dust Bowl
Mon Jul 05, 2004
Listen in RealAudio 
We generally consider 1935 and 1936 as the years of the Great American Dust Bowl,
but severe dust storms also struck in 1934, including one affecting central Wisconsin.
Hi, I’m Bryan Yeaton for The Weather Notebook.
Drought first set in across the Central Sands Region of Wisconsin during the summer
of 1933, and continued through the following spring. Rainfall totals were just two thirds
of normal, and what did fall quickly seeped through the region’s sandy loam.
Loggers and farmers cleared the land in the late 1840s, but the poor soil was quickly
depleted of any nutrients. Abandoned acreage, removal of trees that provided
protection from high winds, and continued poor agricultural practices exposed large
stretches of sandy under-soil to erosion. And, without insulating snow cover during the
essentially snow-less 1933-34 winter, fall-planted alfalfa and rye died, leaving many
fields bare through the dry spring.
On May 9th, the worst dust storm in Wisconsin history roared into the state. Originating
in the northern Great Plains, it swept a dust cloud 1,500 miles long, 900 miles wide
and two miles high across the Midwest. For three days, the storm raged like a dusty
blizzard; howling winds reduced visibility to less than a mile.
When the storm reached central Wisconsin, gale force winds struck the six Sand
counties, adding their topsoil to the great cloud. Over the next 48 hours, a foot of topsoil
disappeared from 20,000 acres across the state, ruining two million acres of newly
planted crops. In Chicago, 12 million tons of dust fell like black snow.
This event, and the dust storms to come, increased awareness of soil conservation
issues, lead by Aldo Leopold whose "A Sand County Almanac" is now a conservation
classic.
Thanks to our contributing writer, meteorologist Keith Heidorn. The Weather Notebook
is supported by Subaru of America and the National Science Foundation.
|
|
