It can sometimes be very windy across much of Nebraska and that is never a good thing in areas that are still suffering with a drought.
With the potential for drought conditions to continue this summer and the fields parched, even a slightly windy day has dirt, dust and sand stirring up and creating low visibilities. Fortunately, things aren’t as bad as they were back in the 1930s. The Dust Bowl was a period of time that affected much of the southern plains back in the 1930s.
For about 10 years, dry lands, drought conditions, and high winds plagued parts of the Midwest creating miserable living conditions. A book was even written by John Steinbeck called “The Grapes of Wrath” back in 1939 that chronicled some of the hardships people had to endure in that period of time. While dust storms are a natural phenomenon, there are many things that farmers, ranchers, and other environmentally conscience people have done over the last few decades to prevent such things from happening in the Midwest.
However, sometimes there’s not much we can do when Mother Nature decides we aren’t going to get any rain. When that happens, valuable topsoil is going to be flying around when the wind picks up and while natural and manmade wind blocks calm the winds down a little, it sometimes only helps a little.