The dust bowl was a period in the 1930’s of severe dust storms that greatly damaged the ecology and agriculture of the American and Canadian prairies. The Dust Bowl was in southeastern Colorado, southwest Kansas, and the panhandles of Oklahoma and Texas. Eventually, the entire country was affected. In 1931 a severe drought hit the Midwestern and Southern Plains. The Dust Bowl lasted from 1934-1939. In 1930, weather patterns over the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans shifted. The Pacific grew cooler than normal and the Atlantic became warmer. That was enough to weaken and change the direction of the jet stream. That air current usually carries moisture from the Gulf of Mexico up toward the Great Plains. It then dumps rain when it reaches the Rockies.