cause of the drought, the ground became very dry in the Great Plains. This area, known as the Dust Bowl, was a region of horrible dust storms during most of the 1930's. The storms accompanied the drought and intensified the problems of the farmers. With the drought, many fields were not in a situation to grow crops. Since the fields were so dry, the topsoil would easily blow away with the passing wind. In 1932 many fields were starting to be brutally damaged by the dust. The Oklahoma Panhandle was hit for twenty-two straight days of dust storms, which created drifts everywhere. This flying dirt killed off much of the crops. In a one-year span 139 days were considered to have had dust storms. Even though the dirt storms were less common in 1934, it was the year in which national attention was gained for the region because of the extreme heat. Also in 1934, approximately 350 million tons of soil was lost in just one storm. The following year was a time of large, powerful dust storms. During the month of May in 1935, a storm known as "Black Sunday" created winds up to sixty miles per hour and left many farms ruined. The storms were normality by 1935, and extreme weather was a common characteristic. The number of storms began to rise again in 1936, and the temperatures became scorching. But by the end of 1936, rain started to fall once again; however, the droughts soon returned and forced many farmers to leave their fields and to move west. By 1938 there was mixture of snow and dirt that reached blizzard like sizes, which were call "snusters." These storms caused a great amount of destruction to the farms and sorrow to the farmers. With farms in horrible conditions, farmers in the Dust Bowl found farming a very difficult task.President Roosevelt and his New Deal tried to ease the pains of the farmers. The Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA) was formed to help out the farmers in their time of need. It paid farmers n...
