352 A. N. Winchell— Great Dust fall of 1920. 



the region between Denver and Cheyenne the 1920 storm 

 was recorded as the worst March windstorm since 1901. 

 Barns, windmills, and telephone and telegraph poles were 

 blown down by hundreds. Plate glass windows were 

 blown in, winter grains were blasted by the driving sand. 

 Many fires were started by the wind, Denver reporting 

 43, the greatest number in one day in the history of the 

 fire department. The air was so filled with drifting snow 

 in the mountains, and with drifting dust and sand on the 

 plains that trains on the Moffat Road and the Colorado 

 and Southern Railway were halted for hours. The dust 

 clouds darkened cities in northeastern Colorado in broad 

 sunlight on March 18, so that artificial light had to be 

 used. 



The dust storm prevailed as far east as St. Joseph, 

 Kansas City and Little Rock, where it was reported that 

 the ' ' air was full of dust, sifting into offices, and covering 

 books and papers. ' ' Haze was noted as far eastward as 

 Nashville, Tenn., and Columbus, Ohio, where the haziness 

 prevailed on the forenoon of the 19th so long as the wind 

 was from the southwest, but disappeared with the change 

 of the wind to the northwest. 



This storm was competent to cause eolian erosion 

 throughout its track from the Rocky Mountains eastward. 

 It caused the highest winds of the month of March, 1920 

 at the following places : 



Velocity. Direction. Date. 



Denver 51 W 18 



Cheyenne 74 W 18 



Topeka 50 "W 18 



Iola 36 W 18 



St. Joseph 52 W 19 



Kansas City 55 W 18 



Little Rock 49 NW 19 



Knoxville 36 SW 19 



Thomasville 24 SW 19 



Jacksonville 49 SW 19 



Asheville 33 NW 20 



Eastport ...56 NE 20 



The state of the ground as to snow cover as last 

 reported before the passage of the storm is shown in 

 fig. 1. All of the central and southern Plains and the 

 southern Plateau region was exposed. 



