The INSANE Electrified Dust Storm of 1935

A few hundred thousand years ago during the Ice Age, insane apocalyptic dust storms were the norm. During this period, the Earth had an incredibly dry atmosphere due to moisture being locked up in large sheets of ice. For this reason, during the late winter and early spring months, strong winds would often loft huge amounts of dirt, sand, and dust high into the atmosphere, creating massive black walls of death. These dust tsunamis would then engulf huge sections of both Europe and North America. They were nothing like your modern dust storm. No, no, no. These paleo dust storms were insane. They weren't just comprised of blowing dust and dirt. No, the air was so dry and the winds were so intense that these dust storms would actually produce large amounts of static electricity, a very rare phenomenon known as dust lightning. Oh, and on top of that, these apocalyptic dust storms would also feature swarms of internal dust devils. We're talking swarms of tornadoes inside these massive black walls of death. Now, thankfully, like I said, these sort of doomsday dust storms don't happen today, right? Well, actually, if all the right ingredients come together, they can occur. The most prominent example happening on April 14, 1935, when extreme temperatures, horrific drought conditions, and improper farming techniques all came together to create the perfect storm. What many today refer to as Black Sunday, or simply the Black Blizzard. The Black Blizzard dust storm is one of the most historic weather events in U.S. history, and nothing quite like it has really happened since. There had been bad dust storms before the Black Blizzard, but this particular event was on an entirely different level. The cloud was so thick, it blocked out all the light from the sun, making it darker than the darkest night. Everything was black. You couldn't hardly see your hand before your face. The cloud was so massive that it could be seen from dozens of miles away, and its contents were so toxic that if you were unfortunate enough to be caught out in it, you could hardly breathe. We were so short on oxygen, we could hardly stand up. Conditions were so dry and windy that, similar to the apocalyptic dust storms of the Ice Age, large electrical discharges, aka dust lightning, occurred. Sit down on the ground to examine the Today, we're doing a deep dive into this event, featuring real footage and interviews. We'll also be discussing more modern events, such as the 1983 Great Melbourne Dust Storm. It's estimated that the storm dumped 1,000 tons of dust on Melbourne. Another 50,000 tons of dust passed over the city in the time it took the storm to clear the city area. And whether or not these perfect apocalyptic dust storms will become more common in the future. But before we get to that, this video is sponsored by Chime. 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The Phillips family, Ed, Ada, and their six-year-old daughter, Norma, had just woken up for the day. As they were eating breakfast, the father, Ed, noted just how sunny it was outside. The sky was perfectly clear. There was no humidity, no moisture, no clouds, just a clear, deep blue sky. It was also Palm Sunday, so the family headed off to church. After the church service, many families skipped their usual post-church chats to quickly head home. You see, the temperature was quite hot outside. We're talking around 90 degrees Fahrenheit, pretty hot for April 14th. The Phillips family also headed home to eat lunch and find comfort in the shade. After successfully completing their Sunday chores, the Phillips family decided to head into town to run some errands. They hopped into the family car and began driving. The vibes outside were actually a bit eerie. The weather was still very hot and the sky was extremely sunny, but there was no wind, and everything in general was very calm. Perhaps too calm. As they were driving down the highway, Ed noticed something off in the distance. A small black line was faintly visible on the northern horizon. Even though it was far away, Ed recognized the line immediately. It was an approaching dust storm. At first, he wasn't too worried. The Phillips family had become used to dust storms. They were somewhat common over the U.S. high plains throughout the 1930s. This was during a time known as the Dust Bowl. Extreme drought conditions mixed with soil erosion from bad farming techniques often caused an occasional dust storm to roll through. Usually, these dust storms would momentarily block out the sun and cause a little throat irritation, but overall, they were rarely a major problem. But this dust storm would be different. The Phillips family pulled into a parking spot at the local general store. Ed got out and noticed that the large dust cloud was getting closer and closer. There were also flocks of birds flying away in the opposite direction. While they had seen many dust storms before, this particular storm seemed larger and more menacing than anything they had ever seen. The Phillips family then went into the store and began shopping for their weekly provisions. As they left the store, Ed checked on the progression of the approaching dust storm. Right away, he knew it could be a problem. The storm now looked like a massive tsunami of dirt, and it was rapidly approaching them. Their six-year-old daughter, Norma, was understandably freaking out. The Phillips family quickly got into their car to try and outrun this rolling cloud of death. Heading down the highway, the storm was getting closer and closer until it was just about to swallow up their car. Ed panicked and tried to find a solution, a shelter of sorts. Just then, on the side of the road, he noticed an old abandoned adobe hut. He drove into the ditch, grabbed Ada and Norma's hands, and started trekking towards the hut. But it was too late. The dust storm had completely swallowed up the family. Ed could hardly see. Extreme 60-plus mph winds were causing sand to blow all around into their mouths, pelting their skin. Breathing was nearly impossible. The hot temps were no more. In only a matter of minutes, the temperature had dropped 40 degrees. The car's headlights vanished into the pitch black. But just ahead, he could still barely make out the shelter. He grabbed his family, and they made their way to the door. Finally, he opened it, and the family practically collapsed into the shelter. Once they closed the door, though, they were surprised to find 10 other people were already seeking shelter in this same adobe hut. The 12 occupants ended up sheltering in the small hut for four dark hours. Winds were howling, and occasional lighting strikes would flash through the cracks, followed by thunder. Some were fearing that they would get stuck if enough sand built up to block the door. But thankfully, around 9.30 pm, the winds died down, and the ordeal was over. These people had just survived the terrifying Black Blizzard, the worst dust storm in U.S. history. And by the way, this dust storm didn't just impact Boise City, Oklahoma. No, it took out a huge section of the entire U.S. plains. Much of the central U.S. was completely blanketed by this storm, from Nebraska all the way down to Texas. Songs were literally written about this event. That's how impactful it was. But how did this monster dust storm of the century form? To find out what happened, we need to rewind to the day before, Saturday, April 13th. On this day, there was a high pressure region over the upper plains, South Dakota, North Dakota, and Wyoming. With this high pressure came high temperatures. And again, remember, this was during a time of historic drought. This area had been in a drought for four years. And, and this is very important, let me say this real quick, this entire region used to be prairie for thousands of years. Okay, think about that. So prairie grasses would grip onto the top of the soil and hold everything into place, preventing erosion. But in the 1920s and the 1930s, homesteaders and farmers came into the region and destroyed the prairies to plant various crops. And in 1913, my brother and I bought this ranch. And for several years, we had a very fine condition. But the farmers came here, they were 20, long about, I'd say about 27 or 28. And they began to buy this land and break it up and plant it into crop and corn. The soil that had been held together by various prairie grasses for 1000 years was now loose. See a very dry conditions and a lot of loose soil. These together became two important ingredients for a dust disaster. The only ingredient that was missing was wind. Well, that was about to change. By Sunday, the warm air had spread all the way down to Texas. But there was trouble on the horizon. A strong cold front was quickly moving into the region from the north. This strong cold front brought with it strong winds. And these winds began to pick up loose soil in southern South Dakota around 7am in the morning. The front then continued to head south into Nebraska. During the beginnings of this front, it was mostly just looser in the air, nothing major. But by 10am, several more organized clusters of dirt began to develop over central western Nebraska. As the front moved over various towns, people reported hazy skies, nothing too extreme. But there was definitely a lot of dust in the atmosphere. And as the storm moved south, it became more and more organized. By 2pm, the various dust fronts began to combine into one massive dust squall. This line of dust and sand was about 50 to 100 miles wide and 1000 feet tall. But as it rolled south, it picked up more and more dust and it grew larger and larger. By the time it reached Dodge City, Kansas around 3pm, there was so much dirt and dust in the air that the streetlights needed to be activated. Here's an actual photo from Dodge City during the event. This is at three in the afternoon. By 4pm, it became even more organized. And this is when it formed that dreadful black wall. This black wall was massive. It was 200 miles wide, 10,000 feet tall and 50 miles deep. At this point, any town caught in the path was in trouble. The first major city to get hit was Liberal Kansas at 4pm. Residents of Liberal Kansas ran inside as the black wall of death approached. Once the cloud overcame the town, visibility collapsed, causing instant blindness to those who were still caught outside. People became lost in the streets and couldn't find their own homes. Some had to crawl along fences or buildings just to navigate. They could also hardly breathe. We stopped at the side of the road and waited until we could see the edge of the road, which was I don't know how long. It seemed like a lifetime. We drove on home and we found out when we got out, we were so short on oxygen, we could hardly stand up. In an article posted by the Liberal newspaper, the event was described like this. A great black bang rolled in and in the twinkle, it struck Liberal, plunging everything into inky blackness. It was impossible to see one's hand before the face at a distance of two inches, and it was several moments before any trace of daylight. It was literally darker than the darkest night. I mean, that's terrifying. You can't see anything. There's just howling sound all around. Everything was black. You couldn't hardly see your hand before your face. It's just a black, just a solid black. You could, you lighted the lights in the house and you couldn't hardly find your way about the house. By 430, the Black Blizzard was reaching peak intensity as it dipped into Oklahoma and Texas. Some of the hardest hit communities were Woodward, Arnett, and of course, Boise City, where the Phillips family was located. The conditions were so dry, the wind was so strong, and the cloud was so dense that various debris particles were smashing into each other, creating friction and static electricity. These would then build up a large electric charge and little arcs of lightning started to occur. Just like in prehistoric times, people were encountering dust lightning. One such individual was Mr. Williamson of Guyman, Oklahoma. Mr. Williamson was actually on horseback as the cloud rolled in. As the dirt blew all around, he heard buzzing in his ears, and little flashes of lightning began to arc between his horse's ears. This account is found in an article by the Panhandle Herald, stating this, It was under these conditions that the sudden dust storm came up, and with the boiling dust that mounted in variegated colors, hundreds of yards in the air tinged with the lights of the prairie fire swept down their way. Mr. Williamson, who had lost one of his limbs when a boy, had mounted a horse and was heading toward the fire, when he met this great dust cloud, and was enveloped in darkness. The electrical currents were so strong that it snapped from ear to ear on his Bronco. Other farmers had noted that the storm's electricity had actually electrocuted their plants. Some wheat that fall. Next year it was blowing out. I put my wheat back in. I come out here and went to my field of wheat and sit down on the ground to examine the plants. They were brown. They had been electrocuted. They were dead. Big healthy plants now electrocuted and dead. And I cried because I was so disappointed. This was my third year. Other strange phenomena observed during the Black Blizzard were unusual sky colors. In many of these cities, as the storm had thinned out after it had passed, the atmosphere was filtered in a very unique way. Some described it as magenta. You can sometimes see red skies associated with dust storms today, but since this was occurring in the evening and the sun was already being filtered by the atmosphere in general, it's possible that the scatter light in the atmosphere was very unique, creating an otherworldly experience. The last major city to be hit was Armillo, Texas, at 7 20 p.m. It was reported that in Armillo, visibility was zero for 12 minutes. Finally, the Black Blizzard was beginning to weaken, and by 9 p.m. the dust storm of the century was over. The remaining dust that had billowed high into the atmosphere slowly settled back to earth throughout Oklahoma and Texas. The next day, the damage could be seen. Houses, cars, businesses, they were all completely buried in dirt, similar to what an actual blizzard would do, hence the name Black Blizzard. In the end, it's estimated that about 20 people were killed from the event. All 20 had succumbed to a phenomenon known as dust pneumonia. On April 15th, the AP Lubbock Evening Journal posted an article stating, residents of the Southwestern Dust Bowl marked up another black duster today and wondered how long it would be before another one came along. It is believed that this article featured the very first time the word dust bowl or the words dust bowl were used together. This is where the term came from. The Black Sunday dust storm was the single worst dust storm of the entire dust bowl, although thankfully it was one of the last. You see, a few weeks later on April 27th, the U.S. government passed the Soil Conservation Act of 1935. This act alleviated farm erosion problems by teaching farmers how to manage their land sustainably and by taking immediate steps to curb the dust bowl's impact, most notably through the planting of trees and by restoring native grasses. The storm also caused a lot of people in the panhandle to leave the area and move to California, which is probably what I would have done. Dust storms, of course, still occur today, but they are much rarer in the high plains region. Derechos and strong thunderstorm systems can carry some amounts of dirt with their preceding gust fronts. They can even create little gust tornadoes, gustnados, but nothing quite on the scale of the Black Blizzard of 1935. Another rather dramatic dust storm occurred in 1983 in Melbourne, Australia. Many who experienced this storm stated that it was a pretty terrifying event, a large approaching dirt tsunami followed by complete darkness. This event was then followed by a major wildfire a few days later. It's unlikely that we will see another dust storm on the level of the 1935 Black Blizzard anytime soon. We know a lot more about soil erosion and we have implemented many techniques to drastically lower the risk, but you never know. As we have learned time and time again, sometimes in rare circumstances all the ingredients can come together to form the perfect storm.