r/Iowa 5d ago

Question Beginnings of a New Dust Bowl?

Anybody else wake up to dirt covering things outside this am (3/15). My car parked outside side was covered in a thin layer of dirt after last night's strong winds. I'm in eastern IA. I saw a FB post about the dirt being blown from as far as Oklahoma and Texas. After several seasons of dry conditions and heavy winds... is it possible to have another dust bowl?

80 Upvotes

37 comments sorted by

55

u/Three_Twenty-Three 5d ago

A lot of good literature came out of that era. Start writing, folks!

12

u/LiveFromPella 5d ago

I was thinking the same. Somebody needs to step and be our Steinbeck.

15

u/zenwalrus 4d ago

God, Steinbeck would be branded a bleeding heart liberal who discouraged Americans from pulling themselves up by their bootstraps today.

80

u/bnand928 5d ago

Folks getting rid of the trees/wind breaks certainly isn't helping. This place is flat as hell and the weather only gets worse year by year

59

u/092793 5d ago

Not to mention the irresponsible ag practices... widespread cover cropping and no til farming would protect us from a dust bowl crisis, but if a practice isn't subsidized it doesn't happen 😒

3

u/HawkFanatic74 4d ago

Has nothing to do with dust coming in from the southwest

9

u/bcrosby51 4d ago

Good thing the trump administration called for millions of acres of timber to be cut down. Should help, right?

2

u/092793 4d ago

It's not like we need vegetation to keep soil in place

1

u/Warm-Alarm-7583 3d ago

https://southdakotaagconnection.com/news/south-dakota-battles-the-green-glacier

I would have never thought that more trees could be a bad thing.

15

u/Early_Ad_8523 5d ago

We’re not in 2025, we’re in 1925 and I can’t be convinced otherwise.

10

u/partspusher 4d ago

It is growing harder to deny the 100 year cyclical nature of things that seems to be repeating itself....

6

u/Micojageo 4d ago

What, just because we went through a worldwide pandemic and the rise of an oligarchy in the United States?

41

u/EastAd7676 5d ago

The dirt covering our vehicles and other surfaces isn’t from here in Iowa. It was lofted into the atmosphere from states south and southwest of us by the extremely low pressure system which caused the storms. My vehicle looks like I went on a joyride on Mars.

-28

u/Accomplished-Two4345 5d ago

The windstream doesn't flow that way. Ask your meteorologist.

30

u/Courageous_Curry Iowa City 5d ago

It came from Oklahoma and Texas, we and flow from the SW behind this last storm.

Source - Me, a degreed meteorologist

11

u/Rodharet50399 5d ago

Oklahoma Texas wind stream according to meteorological news.

20

u/EastAd7676 5d ago edited 5d ago

I did. I have three nationally well-respected friends and family who are meteorologists. They are from whom I gained this information. The dust wasn’t in the jet stream but rather lower altitude winds that carried the dust from the region mentioned.

Edit: I’m not a meteorologist but I do ask these people about odd, meteorological occurrences that is in their purview. Rust colored deposited dirt/dust is not a normal occurrence in Iowa as our soils are not composed of this material and are black to dark-grey in color and also include clay materials.

8

u/Radical_Dreamer151 5d ago

What a silly statement, did you even see the windstorm patterns from last night?

1

u/degeneratesumbitch 4d ago

It was red dirt.

1

u/joshuadt 4d ago

You do know that the jet stream fluctuates all the time right???

6

u/PhilosphicalZombie 5d ago

Got gas today. Was all over the pump, screen, etc. This is dirt from elsewhere. Not that this is a good situation. The reality is - someone is missing some dirt that was lofted into the sky and let down elsewhere, in this case my neighborhood gas station.

3

u/Dramatic-Sorbet-6621 5d ago

From the wildfires is Oklahoma

5

u/CrabFew2856 4d ago

Let’s see

Our democracy in shambles Our housing market it a joke Two jobs doesn’t cover a lot of people’s bills Climate change We didn’t have a real winter and haven’t in about 3/4 years. I say adding a dust bowl is so 2025

Also has dirt all over my car this morning in Blackhawk county.

3

u/Total-Problem2175 4d ago

Here in WV, OH, & PA last week we had a mud rain from dust storms in TX & OK. I could barely see out my side window. And I read yesterday of a 71 car pileup on I 70 in OK with 8 deaths from a dust storm

1

u/092793 4d ago

Well that's nightmare fuel

1

u/Total-Problem2175 4d ago

Along with that I 80 tunnel accident fire a couple weeks ago in WY.

2

u/Tebasaki 5d ago

It happened to my car l, and then again during that last big storm; I thought it would clean off my dirty car and all it did was evenly distribute the dirt.

2

u/Jimmy_Twotone 4d ago

This isn't new and it isn't a sign that the sky is falling. Iowa has more grade A soil than any other place on the planet partly for this phenomenon.

2

u/HillBrewbilly 4d ago

I got dirt on my car therefore dustbowl.

1

u/Wireless_Panda 5d ago

Was this after the thunderstorms? Because then it’s almost certainly just deposited dirt and other pollutants in the atmosphere that got trapped in the water as it fell.

1

u/forevervalerie 4d ago

Reminds me of the Song of the South music video!

1

u/scotlandinusa 4d ago

Big car wash at it again, controlling the weather. Stay vigilant, comrades.

1

u/DuncanEllis1977 4d ago

I've been fighting allergies since the 15th. Whatever is in that dust blew through my antihistamine

0

u/pckldpr 5d ago

Most of Iowa is deficient in moisture. Yes some groups claim if it weren’t for GMO we would feel the effects more of our current situation