--- description: April 14, 1935: The worst dust storm in history descends on the Great Plains—exactly four years before 'The Grapes of Wrath' is published title: Black Sunday Dust Storm and Great Depression Novel Share Anniversary image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0b9accba88c0466e/6987871306f2c12f69334ca6/dust.jpeg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [History](/section/history/) ## History Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [natural disaster](/tag/natural-disaster/) ## natural disaster Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # How a Dust Storm Inspired a Mass Exodus and a Great Novel by [Jennifer Latson](/author/jennifer-latson/) ## Jennifer Latson Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Apr 14, 2015 2:00 PM CUT  Father & sons walking towards shack, pace slowed by dust storm, in the Great Plains in the 1930s Father & sons walking towards shack, pace slowed by dust storm, in the Great Plains in the 1930sArthur Rothstein—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images by [Jennifer Latson](/author/jennifer-latson/) ## Jennifer Latson Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Apr 14, 2015 2:00 PM CUT The dust fell so thickly on this day, April 14, 80 years ago, that even Okies and Texans inured to dust storms thought the end of the world was upon them. The fast-moving, low-hanging black cloud caught them unprepared, trapping motorists in their cars and forcing those who were caught out in the open to drop to their knees and crawl blindly toward shelter, according to [an account by the Oklahoma Climatological Survey.](http://climate.ok.gov/index.php/site/page/news/black%5Fsunday%5Fremembered "undefined") “Afternoon brightness \[plunged\] immediately into midnight darkness,” noted one National Weather Service observer. It became known as the Black Sunday storm — the worst on record in the drought-stricken Great Plains. An Associated Press reporter and photographer who had tried to outrun the storm in a car were trapped for hours in the suffocating blackness. The next day, the reporter used the term “Dust Bowl” for the first time in print to describe the devastated region: “Three little words — achingly familiar on a western farmer’s tongue — rule life today in the dust bowl of the continent … ‘if it rains,’ ” he wrote. Four years after Black Sunday, John Steinbeck marked the storm’s anniversary by publishing _The Grapes of Wrath_, the iconic tale of Oklahoma tenant farmers driven off their land and pushed into California in search of a new life. The fictional Joad family joined the real-life exodus of migrant farmers — roughly a quarter of a million of them, [per TIME](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,761114-1,00.html "undefined") — who followed the same path out of desperation after the farms of the Great Plains were ruined by [drought, overgrazing and unsustainable farming practices](http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/general-article/dustbowl-drought/ "undefined"). But in the promised land where Ma Joad dreamed of “a white house with oranges growin’ around,” they encountered hostility and living conditions not much better than in the dusty wasteland they’d left behind. “Some of them camp in packing-box jungles and drink ditchwater; others are lucky enough to lodge in new government camps with modern plumbing and electric washing machines,” [TIME observed in a 1940 article that compared the real-life migrant farmers to Steinbeck’s fictional ones](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,772342,00.html "undefined"). (Reviled as the penniless Okies were in California, TIME offered an ambivalent defense: “Strangely enough the incidence of venereal disease among the migrants is lower than among native Californians, and they have relatively little tuberculosis. Greatest plague: dietary diseases (scurvy and pellagra), resulting from lack of fresh meat and vegetables.”) And while _The Grapes of Wrath_ climbed to the top of the bestseller list, won the Pulitzer Prize, and became a “cornerstone of \[Steinbeck’s\] 1962 Nobel Prize,” according to the introduction to the Penguin Classics edition, TIME was similarly ambivalent about the merits of the book. In [its review](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,761114-1,00.html "undefined"), TIME concludes: --- > “” --- **_Read the full review of_** **The Grapes of Wrath** **_, here in the TIME archives_** **:** [Oakies](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,761114-1,00.html "undefined") ### See the Most Insane Natural Disasters of 2014  Polar Vortex The U.S. side of Niagara Falls is pictured in Niagara Falls, N.Y. on Jan. 8, 2014\. The frigid air and "polar vortex" affected about 240 million people in the United States and southern Canada. 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Gary Hershorn—Corbis  Yosemite Wildfire A long exposure image shows the El Portal Fire burning near Yosemite National Park, Calif. on July 27, 2014. Stuart Palley  Iceland Volcano The Bardarbunga volcano spews lava and smoke in southeast Iceland on Sept. 14, 2014. Bernard Merci—AFP/Getty Images  Japan Volcano Japan Ground Self-Defense Force personnel and other rescuers arrive to conduct search operations at the ash-covered Ontake Shrine near the summit of Mount Ontake in central Japan on Oct. 4, 2014. Kyodo News/AP  Hawaii Lava Lava pushes through a fence marking a property boundary above the town of Pahoa on the Big Island of Hawaii, Oct. 28, 2014. U.S. Geological Survey/AP  Buffalo Snow Storm Storm clouds and snow blow off Lake Erie in Buffalo, N.Y. on Nov. 18, 2014\. An autumn blizzard dumped a year's worth of snow in three days on Western New York state, where five people died and residents, some stranded overnight in cars, braced for another pummeling expected later on Wednesday. REUTERS/Lindsay DeDario (UNITED STATES - Tags: ENVIRONMENT TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY) Lindsay Dedario—Reuters  Philippines Typhoon Hagupit A Filipino typhoon victim collects water in front of a damaged home where Typhoon Hagupit hit, Samar Island, Philippines, on Dec. 8, 2014. Francis R. 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