BLACK SUNDAY

[Devil Doc]

Today is the anniversary of Black Sunday, the day in 1935 when a windstorm hit a part of the Great Plains known as the Dust Bowl. When the day started, the weather was sunny and calm. People were on their way home from church, or out visiting friends for lunch, when they saw huge flocks of birds flying south, away from a dark black cloud on the northern horizon. As the cloud approached, people realized that it wasn't a storm cloud, but a cloud of dirt, blown up by the wind. Witnesses said it was like a black tidal wave came down from the sky. It became as dark as night as soon as the cloud descended. Static electricity stalled cars and shorted out telephone lines. People standing a few yards away from their homes got lost in the darkness, and grabbed onto fence posts to keep from being blown to the ground. It was later estimated that the storm carried 300 million tons of soil through the air.


Doc.

 

[sack]

That sure had to have scared the hell out of people at that time. Must have seemed like the end of the world. What could have caused such a thing? Besides the wind i mean. Farming techniques, lack of rain, a combination of everything. SCARY!

 

[billytpage]

Thats weird, I live in the great plains and yesterday we had a freak snow storm. Talk about a surreal anniversary.

Billy

 

[violin_faerie]

Thats weird, I live in the great plains and yesterday we had a freak snow storm. Talk about a surreal anniversary.

Billy

Funny, I was expecting 1-3" but didn't see a single snowflake.

Not to say it didn't snow overnight, but none of it stuck if it did.

Also, regarding the Dust Bowl. I saw on the news just the other day that conditions are ripening for another Dust Bowl-type climate this summer. More information can be seen at <a href="http://wwwa.accuweather.com/promotion.asp?dir=aw&page=dustbowl">AccuWeather website</a>. I was going to link the Nature article, but I'm not paying to see a news article.

 

[Saxjazzman]

Today is the anniversary of Black Sunday, the day in 1935 when a windstorm hit a part of the Great Plains known as the Dust Bowl. When the day started, the weather was sunny and calm. People were on their way home from church, or out visiting friends for lunch, when they saw huge flocks of birds flying south, away from a dark black cloud on the northern horizon. As the cloud approached, people realized that it wasn't a storm cloud, but a cloud of dirt, blown up by the wind. Witnesses said it was like a black tidal wave came down from the sky. It became as dark as night as soon as the cloud descended. Static electricity stalled cars and shorted out telephone lines. People standing a few yards away from their homes got lost in the darkness, and grabbed onto fence posts to keep from being blown to the ground. It was later estimated that the storm carried 300 million tons of soil through the air.


Doc.

For those who have been in the sandbox, I would imagine this sounds familiar. Three million tons of dirt is a lot of dirt.