The 'Dirty 30s' produced the worst U.S. environmental disaster ever

For much of West Texas, the drought of the past few years has been the worst in recorded history, even more parching than the infamous choking droughts of the 1930s and the 1950s.

From Oct. 1, 2010 through Sept. 30, 2011, the entire state of Texas suffered through its driest 12 months ever observed. Farmers and ranchers across the Lone Star State lost more than eight billion dollars. By mid summer of last year, a whopping two-thirds of West Texas was reduced to bare ground, as dry as the Sahara Desert in North Africa. First the cattle were liquidated, then the sheep and the goats. There was little water and virtually no animal feed. This 2010-11 major drought extended northward into Oklahoma and much of Kansas and a major portion of the Desert Southwest from New Mexico westward through Arizona, Nevada and Southern California.

As I predicted would be the case, this crop-destroying ranch and farm-busting drought spread all the way east past the Appalachian Mountains in 2012 and northward through Iowa and Nebraska into Montana, the Dakotas and southern Canada.

As of this past week, the U.S.D.A. had rated the 2012 U.S. corn crop at an all-time worst 51 percent poor-to-very poor condition. The soybeans were rated 37 percent poor-to-very poor. The 2012 cotton crop wasn't much better at 30 percent poor-to-very poor.

But, while the parching droughts of the 1950s, the 1980s and the 2010s have each set records in places across the U.S., overall, no drought in the recorded history of this country has been worse than the 'Dust Bowl Days' of the Depression-wracked 1930s.

The so-called 'Dirty 30s' featured the worst environmental disaster of the entire 20th century in this country. More than three million people left their farms in the dust-choked Great Plains and migrated to other states, particularly California, Oregon, Washington, and Idaho.

My weather charts from 1930 to 1939 show that many areas of the U.S. east of the Rockies from the Dakotas to Texas received just 37 percent of their normal precipitation during this decade-long drought.

The previous 75-year cycle major drought of 1856-1865 was almost as dry nationwide, but the environmental disaster of the 1930s was far worse due to poor land use and the lack of planning, a severe problem that still faces us today in the 21st century on a global scale. (There is no 'Joseph.')

Much of the Great Plains, for example, had been overly plowed for decades just prior to the 1930s, especially as millions of acres of wheat plantings expanded westward to the eastern slopes of the Rockies. Expanding livestock herds also over-grazed the land. As the precipitation drastically fell off, these fields died. Even the natural grasses shriveled exposing the bare earth to hot, gusty winds and increasing land erosion that led to the worst series of blinding dust storms in recorded history across much of the Great Plains. Thousands of residents later died of dust-related lung diseases. Many farmers totally abandoned their homesteads.

My friend Walt Floyd of Pittsburg, Calif., a cousin of the famous bank robber of the 1930s, 'Pretty Boy Floyd,' told me in 1962, "Cliff, our entire farm in central Oklahoma was completely swallowed up by huge mountains of dust in the early to mid 1930s."

Walt added, "Day was turned into night by these dust storms. We had to put towels in the windows and rugs under the doors in order to keep the dust from filling up our farmhouse."

The Floyds finally called it quits in early 1939 and moved with thousands of other 'Okies' to California. Everything that they owned was on the old Ford truck. 'Grapes of Wrath' was a reality! After reaching California, the entire Floyd family worked in the fields of the San Joaquin Valley harvesting mostly fruits and vegetables. It was still the Depression and they were glad to have any job and be out of Oklahoma.

Most residents of the drought-plagued Great Plains and the Midwest this time around are 'staying put.' They are prayerfully awaiting "the sound of rain on the roof," a sign that the worst of this drought cycle is over.

NORTH IDAHO WEATHER REVIEW AND LONG-RANGE OUTLOOKS

As I've mentioned many times lately in various Coeur d'Alene Press articles, we continue to be in a prolonged cycle of WIDE WEATHER 'EXTREMES' with no end in sight.

For example, we went from the wettest spring and early summer on record to the driest mid summer since at least 1895 in a 'New York Minute.' Fire-danger levels in our North Idaho forests quickly went from 'low' in early July to 'very high' in mid August.

We didn't see even a mere drop of rain during the entire 32-day span from July 20 through the early morning hours of Aug. 21. That broke the previous record dating back to the Dust Bowl Era of 1934, when 0.03 inches of precipitation was gauged in Coeur d'Alene during the same period.

Tuesday's thunderstorms produced .23 inches of moisture, which was badly-needed to say the least. As of Thursday, Aug. 23, we remained exactly an inch short of our normal August rainfall since 1895 of 1.23 inches.

As predicted, the weather turned sunny and cooler for this year's edition of the 2012 North Idaho Fair and Rodeo. This was a welcome change from last year's record heat near 100 degrees. As always, I enjoyed meeting my weather fans in the Coeur d'Alene Press booth on Thursday afternoon.

Longer-term weatherwise, I still see rather dry weather conditions lingering locally well into the fall season. Temperatures will fluctuate greatly from week-to-week, from highs in the 70s to readings above the 90-degree 'Sholeh mark.'

Our next chance of rain may not arrive until the very end of August into early September due to a large high pressure ridge that's rebuilt across the Inland Northwest. Enjoy the sunny days of late summer while they are with us. Before we know it, the "snows will be flying."

Cliff Harris is a climatologist who writes a weekly column for The Press. His opinions are his own. Email sfharris@roadrunner.com