From the Annals of the Dust Bowl –   In 1935,  a massive dust storm swept across Oklahoma and Texas earning it the title of  “Black Sunday.”   The storm became the stuff of legends.  It inspired songs and was likely responsible for the coining of the phrase “Dust Bowl.”   That Sunday afternoon was described as warm and sunny, but a wall of sand and dust kicked up in the Oklahoma panhandle and  northwestern Oklahoma around 4 pm.  The storm moved quickly to the south and southeast across  Oklahoma.  Wind speeds of more than 40 mile per hour were recorded along with a plunge in temperature.  The worst part of the storm was in the Texas panhandle.  Wind speeds reached 60 miles per hour and the massive dust cloud blotted out the sun.  Reports were that for a brief time it was so dark that you could not see the hand in front of your face.  Avis D. Carlson of the New Republic described a massive dust storm as follows:

“People caught in their own yards grope for the doorstep. Cars come to a standstill, for no light in the world can penetrate that swirling murk…. The nightmare is deepest during the storms. But on the occasional bright day and the usual gray day we cannot shake from it. We live with the dust, eat it, sleep with it, watch it strip us of possessions and the hope of possessions.”