Volume 18 , Issue 24

Dust Storm Hovers Near California In Sweep Westward

This article was found in the Oakland Tribune, Oakland, California, dated 13 April 1935, Saturday, page 1, that we found this article written by Julian A. Beaman, United Press Staff Correspondent: "Dust Storm Hovers Near California In Sweep Westward."

Found on Newspapers.com

An area of Low pressure kept clouds from Imperial Valley. Crops were menaced; motorists forced to turn back in Arizona as Pall Widens.

Phoenix, Ariz., April 13 (1935) -- A blanket-shaped area -- 700 miles long and 400 miles wide -- was coated with dirt as a midwest dust storm swept from he Colorado River to El Paso, Texas.

Originating in the Texas Panhandle region, the storm crossed New Mexico, touched Texas at El Paso and swept westward to the Colorado where it menaced Southern California.

Only a low pressure area in California kept the yellow clouds of dust from crossing the river into dry Imperial Valley and then heading for the ocean.

The thick clouds that spread desolation through Colorado and Kansas blotted out the sun at Douglas, Arizona, and but visibility to less than three miles near Phoenix.

Passenger airline pilots completing late runs reported the yellow bank extended nearly three miles in the air. Planes arriving had thick coats of dust along the fuselage.

Cars Forced Back By Heavy Dust
The dust-choked air forced motorists between Phoenix and Tucson to turn back, their cars covered with dirt.

Reports from Gallup and Lordsburg, New Mexico, said the storm was breaking in that region.

Santa Fe trains through the Southwest were from two to 10 hours late. The Southern Pacific was working exclusively on late schedules.

Weather bureau experts said there was little danger of the storm reaching the coast of California. They said a low pressure area prevails over most of the California coast region, which should act to keep the storm out. The condition was expected to prevail for two or three days, experts pointed out, after which time the dust storm probably will have blown itself out.

Short Crops Seen Due To Trouble
Release of federal relief funds for dust control work cheered residents of the Midwest's drought area today (April 13, 1935) as short crop reports influenced wheat in a rise to the dollar-a-bushel mark at Chicago, and silt clouds whipped up by Spring winds spread afar.

Payment for tractor fuel - at the rate of 10 cents and acre - and the use of relief workers was authorized by Administrator Harry L. Hopkins in the relatively small affected region.

Seeking to withdraw arid areas from agricultural production, the Department of Agriculture projected a surveyor the damage. Plans under consideration called for withdrawal of between 50 million and 100 million acres now in production for use for grazing, forest planting, recreation and wild life purposes.

Pessimism over the wheat outlook in the dust area of western Kansas, eastern Colorado, the Texas and Oklahoma Panhandles and eastern New Mexico combined with a Dun and Bradstreet prophesy of a sharp business advance to force May wheat to the dollar mark in Chicago for the first time since January 11 (1935). San Francisco marked up $1.02.
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