Abstract
IT was only to be expected that the American drought of 1934 would extend well into the growing season of 1935, in some parts of its extensive area, and this is proving to be the case. In a number of articles that have been issued by Science Service, Washington, D.C., during the past few months, the gradual contraction of the stricken area has been traced. In one such article, dated Maroh 13, early spring rains in the Plains were mentioned, and a great excess from the Ohio Valley to the Gulf, sufficient to delay spring ploughing. On March 27 light rains were described as having eased the situation in the northern part of the western drought area; but dust storms were reported in the completely dry region in eastern Colorado and western Kansas and in Texas. On April 20 an improvement was noted in Texas and Oklahoma, and a hope on the part of the forecasters in the Weather Bureau that western Kansas and eastern Colorado might soon be relieved by invading depressions. Articles dated May 1 and 2 showed that this hope had not been fulfilled, the area in question remaining to represent the temporary “Great American Desert”. A faint sprinkle of rain was described as having evaporated as fast as it fell in Dodge City. In the relieved areas, the cold weather and sodden fields, and the resultant delay in farming work, wore said to bo accepted with complacency after tho provious extremes of drought and heat.
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Effects of the 1934 Drought in the United States. Nature 136, 253 (1935). https://doi.org/10.1038/136253a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/136253a0