The Great Depression: What Caused It and How it Ended

6. Severe Drought in the Great Plains -- the Dust Bowl

Many years of wind erosion and over-farming (deep plowing of topsoil), followed by a severe drought, caused large areas of the Great Plains to turn into veritable dust deserts. Prevailing gusty winds blew over the region, creating immense black clouds of dust that sometimes reached Washington D.C. and New York City. Soil erosion and drought affected over 100 million acres of farmland where wheat and corn once grew plentifully. The hardest-hit areas were the Oklahoma and Texas panhandles.

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