Black Sunday

Black Sunday refers to a particularly severe dust storm that occurred on April 14, 1935 as part of the Dust Bowl in the United States. It was one of the worst dust storms in American history and it caused immense economic and agricultural damage. It is estimated to have displaced 300 thousand tons of topsoil from the prairie area. On the afternoon of April 14, residents of several plains states were forced to take cover as a dust storm or "black blizzard" blew through the region. The storm hit the Oklahoma panhandle and northwestern Oklahoma first, and moved south for the remainder of the day. It hit Beaver, Oklahoma around 4 p.m., Boise City around 5:15, and Amarillo, Texas at 7:20. The conditions were the most severe in the Oklahoma and Texas panhandles, but the storm's effects were also felt in other surrounding areas. The combination of drought, erosion, bare soil, and winds caused the dust to fly freely and at high speeds. The Dust Bowl The term "Dust Bowl" initially described a series of dust storms that hit the prairies of Canada and the United States during the 1930s. It now describes the area in the United States most affected by the storms, including western Kansas, eastern Colorado, northeastern New Mexico, and the Oklahoma and Texas panhandles. The "black blizzards" started in the eastern states in 1930, affecting agriculture from Maine to Arkansas. By 1934, they had reached the Great Plains, stretching from North Dakota to Texas and from the Mississippi River Valley to the Rocky Mountains. The Dust Bowl as an area received its name following the disastrous Black Sunday storm in April 1935 when reporter Robert E. Geiger referred to the region as "the Dust Bowl" in his account of the storm.