Author Topic: NASA Images Reveal Texan Conditions Not Seen Since 1936 (Read 249 times)

240B · « **on:** May 01, 2025, 09:29:24 pm »

NASA Images Reveal Texan Conditions Not Seen Since 1936

Newsweek
By Ian Randall
May 1, 2025

The storms of the Dust Bowl were caused by a combination of severe drought alongside the expansion of farming land amid the Great Depression and poor farming practices that damaged natural topsoils and enabled wind erosion.

The present dust storms, meanwhile, are the result of extreme drought and unusually windy conditions.

"We're in the worst drought we've seen in at least a decade—and this March was the windiest we've seen in more than 50 years," Gill said.

The environmental scientist and his colleagues have found that the dangers of dust storms are often underestimated.

By slashing visibility, storms can lead to an increase in traffic accidents; dust has also been linked to an increase in emergency-room visits resulting from cardiorespiratory problems and is also suspected to play a role in Valley Fever.

This condition—formally known as coccidioidomycosis, after the soil-swelling Coccidiodes fungus that causes it—can cause symptoms including cough, fever and shortness of breath.

Alongside these health issues, it has also been estimated that dust storms typically cause in excess of $150 billion in economic damages each year, with farmers, households, the renewable energy industry and the health-care sector all taking hits.

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https://www.newsweek.com/nasa-images-reveal-texan-conditions-not-seen-since-1936-2066648