The 1930s were a hard time for farmers in the United States, especially in the Great Plains region. After the end of World War I, farmers overproduced resulting in low prices for crops. When farmers would come to the Midwest, they would farm as much wheat as they could because of the high prices and demand. Of the ninety-seven million acres of farmland, almost thirty-two million acres were being farmed. The farmers were careless in their planting of the crop, because they were trying to make the biggest profit as fast as they could. They started plowing grasslands that were not made for planting and would be hurt severely if planted.
Due to their constant plowing year after year and the lack of rainfall, the soil was quickly losing its fertility. With unfertile, dry land, the wheat crop started to dye. Once the wheat started to dye then it began blowing away with wind. Due to the improper farming, along with a long drought very large dust storms started appear. Dust storms made life in the Dust Bowl very burdensome. During the 1930's, the Great Plains was plagued with a drought, a long period of dryness, which brought demise to many of the farmers in the region. This horrible drought started in 1930, a year that saw heavy rains in a very short time, which cause flooding in many areas of Oklahoma, and the Texas Panhandle. The year continued to with horrible blizzards in the winter and a very heavy drought into the late summer. Many of the farms in the Great Plains, losing most of the crop were greatly affected by the first droughts of the 1930's. The months of July and August saw about a forty-percent decrease of precipitation. From 1934 to 1936, a record drought hit the southwestern region. In 1934 the temperature was extremely hot, causing many people, crops, and farm animals to die as a result of the heat. In 1935 where rainfall was very, very scarce some started slaughtering there own animals because of lack of food to feed them.
The heat began to rise at incredible rates, in the summer of 1936 many days reached above 120 degrees. The drought, along with the dust storms, were major reasons for poor farming in the Great Plains during the 1930's. Because of this drought, the ground became very dry in the. This area was known as the Dust Bowl it was a region of horrible dust storms in the summer and snusters, snow and dust mixtures, in the winter. The storms accompanied the drought and intensified the problems of the farmers. With this drought, many fields were not able 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. Areas of Oklahoma started to look like the desert with sand dunes everywhere. This dust in the air killed a lot 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