How do these forms of media interact in order to communicate information more effectively? What information does each medium provide for the reader? During the 1930s, Oklahoma became known as the Dust Bowl due to a period of severe dust storms that ripped through the state. Severe drought conditions and the failure of local farmers to practice dryland farming methods that prevented wind erosion caused the soil to turn to choking blankets of dust. This dust would sometimes rise hundreds of feet in the air as it swept across almost 1 million acres of land, turning everything in its path to black. Farmers and their families were forced to seek immediate shelter when these "black blizzards" came through, and tens of thousands of families eventually had to abandon their farms altogether.