'Black Sunday'

This photograph was taken in Dodge City, Kansas in April of 1935. In shows the centre of the town in the midst of a dust storm. Dodge City is right in the heart of the so called dust bowl. The kind of storms were common across the great plains but this is considered to be one of the biggest and more intense storms. It became known as 'Black Sunday' due to the thickness of the dust which came over the down like a cloud of black dust which crossed the great plains and passed through several cities in several states. Places in Oklahoma and Texas were affected as well as Kansas. Cities such as Amarillo, TX and Norman, OK were also heavily affected by the cloud of dust. This dust was described as being so thick that it drifted in like snow. The storm resulted in huge agricultural damage, and as a result, immense economic issues for the area. It is believed that the storm was responsible for displacing around 300 million tons of top soil, making farming in the area extremely tough. A number of causes have been suggested as the reason for these storms such as poor farming techniques, over-farming of the land and the invention and use of machinery such as the tractor.

The image itself shows a number of cars parked on an empty street in the middle of the storm. This suggests that the people who were lucky enough to keep their cars through the depression were affected by the consequences of the agricultural issues present throughout the depression. In these areas of the great plains, there was no escaping the great depression, no matter how fortunate you were when it came to finances and possessions. Furthermore, it shows that the agricultural issues suffered throughout the dust bowl were not strictly limited to farms and urban areas, they also had a large impact on the towns in the form of both dust forms, as shown, and the lack of produce being grown and brought into the cities for consumption.
Other images of the 'Black Sunday' dust storm

Sources
http://www.kansas.com/news/article986206.html
http://www.dodgeglobe.com/article/20100414/NEWS/304149995
https://www.weather.gov/oun/events-19350414-maps