1.
Was the Dust Bowl a weather phenomenon and why did it happen?
A: The Dust Bowl was a natural phenomenon that happened during the drought era of the 1930’s in the southwest (plains) . Drought and extensive farming without crop rotation was the major cause of the Dust Bowls. In 1862 congress passed the Homestead Act that allow people to buy land in US unoccupied area and farm it. Many immigrants and slaves were allowed to buy land and they did.
The farmed the land without crop rotation that affected the soil. After several years, people could not farm and without vegetation, there was nothing to hold dirt down. When the yearly wind would come with the jet stream, dust would be picked up in the fast winds and this created the dust storms. (Created by Juana M. Martinez)
2.
Were the causes of the Dust Bowl a natural event and/or man-made misuse of natural resources?
A: The cause was a result of a natural event but it became severe because of the drought situation in the era and the lack of vegetation. Due to Global Warming effect on precipitation, many countries including the United States are experiencing droughts. This could limit soil erosion and lack of vegetation thus creating dust when high wind occurs. (Created by Juana M. Martinez)
3.
What area of the United States did the Dust Bowl affect the most?
A: The southern states were affected the most because of the drought. No precipitation caused the land to dry up. The land in turn had no way of attaching to vegetation life that when the wind storms came it caused the dust to lift. (Created by Michelle Salazar)
I added the blue links and the red quotes. http://www.livinghistoryfarm.org/farminginthe30s/water_02.html
“Technically, the driest region of the Plains – southeastern Colorado, southwest Kansas and the panhandles of Oklahoma and Texas – became known as the Dust Bowl, and many dust storms started there. But the entire region, and eventually the entire country, was affected.”

http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/depression/dustbowl.htm
“For eight years dust blew on the southern plains. It came in a yellowish-brown haze from the South and in rolling walls of black from the North. The simplest acts of life — breathing, eating a meal, taking a walk — were no longer simple. Children wore dust masks to and from school, women hung wet sheets over windows in a futile attempt to stop the dirt, farmers watched helplessly as their crops blew away”. [source]
4.
What were the effects of the Dust Bowls throughout the United States?
A: A: The effects of the Dust Bowl were tremendous. People had to migrate to California because there was no vegetation life. The cost of supplies increased because of the demand. Houses were damaged or covered completely or partially that people had to move out and away. Another devastating effect was that people started getting sick with illnesses that the wind storm carried along. (Created by Michelle Salazar)
5.
How did people, in general, deal with the effects of the Dust Bowl?

A: Families survived on cornbread, beans, and milk. People were beginning to give up hope, and a mass exodus — the largest migration in American history — ensued from the plains. Many families packed their belongings, piled them on their cars and moved westward, fleeing the dust and desert of the Midwest for Washington, Oregon and California. They were willing to work for any wage at all, planting and harvesting other people's lands.
When those families reached the borders of those western states, they were not well received — too many people already there were out of work. Many California farms were corporate owned, meaning they were larger and more modernized than what the farmers were used to. Families often lived in tar-paper shacks with no floor or plumbing.
By 1940, 2.5 million people had moved out of the Dust Bowl states toward the Pacific states.
In the fall of 1934, with cattle feed depleted, the government began to buy and destroy thousands of starving livestock.
Of all the government programs during that time, the cattle slaughter was the most wrenching for farmers. Although it was difficult for farmers to give up their herds, the cattle slaughter helped many of them avoid bankruptcy. (created by Claudia Perez)
6.
How much damage did it cause?
A: The storm damaged about 50 acres.
People became ill and some died due to the dust.
Livestock died due to being caught in the dust storm.
Roads and farm fields were ruined or buried. Farmers had to move because the farming economy was non-existent. Homes were damaged or ruined by the dust storms because they were buried under so much dust. (Created by Claudia Perez)
7.
What are the probabilities that this could happen again? What are scientists doing to prepare or prevent this disaster from happening again?
Global warming threatens to create a dustbowl in the American Southwest according to a new study published in the journal Science.
The research, led by Richard Seager of Columbia University's Lamont Doherty Earth
Observatory, uses projections from 19 climate models to show that the Southwestern
United States and parts of northern Mexico will dry significantly this century and could become as arid as the North American dust bowl of the 1930s.

The researchers warn that the transition to drier climate may already be underway with the recent prolonged drought in the region.
Unlike previous El Nino-related drought in the region, the new aridity appears to be "caused by a pole ward expansion of the subtropical dry zones."
"We show that there is a broad consensus amongst climate models that this region will dry significantly in the 21st century and that the
Photo by Rhett A. Butler. transition to a more arid climate should already be underway," they write. "If these models are correct, the levels of aridity of the recent multiyear drought, or the Dust Bowl and 1950s droughts, will, within the coming years to decades, become the new climatology of the American Southwest."
The researchers predict that the drier climate will be "unlike any climate states that exist on record for the area" -- a forecast that does not bode well for one of the fastest growing population centers in the United States. (created by Maria Izquierdo)
8.
Is there any evidence to prove this weather phenomenon will/will not happen again?
A: Global warming can become a factor that could cause dust forms. Drought is one factor that leads to farmers not being able to plant crops. Lack of vegetation creates the wind to pick up excessive dirt during high winds. Global warming is creating severe droughts throughout the world.
According to a research led by Richard Seager at Columbia University’s Lamont Doherty Earth
Observatory, they are looking at projections from several climate models and has come to the conclusion that parts of Northern Mexico and could be affected by dust bowls because it is significantly dry. This could limit the vegetation and when high wind occur, these dust storms will be created as early as the end of this century.
Work Cited: http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0405-dustbowl.html
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/news/topstory/2004/0319dustbowl.html
CITATION: Richard Seager, Mingfang Ting, Isaac Held, Yochanan Kushnir, Jian Lu, Gabriel Vecchi, Huei-
Ping Huang, Nili Harnik, Ants Leetmaa, Ngar-Cheung Lau, Cuihua Li, Jennifer Velez, Naomi Naik (2007)
"Model Projections of an Imminent Transition to a More Arid Climate in Southwestern North America" www.sciencexpress.org / 5 April 2007 / Page 1 / 10.1126/science.1139601
http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h15