The Dust Bowl was a period of severe dust storms that plagued the Great Plains region of the United States in the 1930s. On November 11, 1933, a massive dust storm hit South Dakota and destroyed farmlands, making it deadly for anyone exposed to the dust. The Dust Bowl lasted throughout the 1930s and covered over 100 million acres, destroying crops, killing livestock, and damaging people's health. It was caused by a combination of severe drought and decades of unsustainable farming practices that degraded the soil. By the worst year of the Dust Bowl in the 1930s, it is estimated that 850 million tons of topsoil had blown away. The Dust Bowl had devastating economic and human impacts that took years to recover from.