A QUICK TRIP THROUGH THE RAINY YEARS Back in the early 1900s—before anyone had ever heard of Netflix, TikTok, or oat milk— Oklahoma was going through some of its rainiest Junes ever. 1923, 1928, 1908, 1989, and especially 2007 all saw rain that would put a smile on any wheat farmer’s face (and probably make their boots squish for a month). Then, right after those “good old days,” the rains stopped coming. And when Oklahoma dries out, it doesn’t mess around. Cue the 1930s and the infamous Dust Bowl—that time in history when the wind blew so hard you couldn’t find your house without a compass, and folks joked about needing to milk the cows in ski goggles.
HOW ALL THAT RAIN HELPED MAKE THE DUST BOWL WORSE Here’s the kicker: All that rain in the 1920s fooled folks into thinking every year was going to be bumper crops and full tanks. Farmers plowed up millions of acres of native grass- land and planted as much wheat as a body could dream. Why not? The ground was wet, the grass was green, and everyone figured the good times would roll on forever. But as every Western Oklahoma old-timer knows, the weather out here has a mean right hook. When the rain turned off in the ‘30s, all that loose soil had nothing to hold it down. So it just packed its bags, caught the next strong breeze, and went sightseeing from Amarillo to Chicago.
