Abslutely last year was worse than the dustbowl, for this county. It was worse than anything in the 50's too. Then we also had some record breaking temperatures in the fall to boot. You can check the records. It was posted in the local paper. It has been so bad that it has attracted a lot of media attention. Fort Worth was hurting but they received a lot of rain we didn't get.
Difference is that this drought is not as widespread. Cattle prices stayed up. There are not as many people farming either. During the "dustbowl" the entire country was suffering.
The wildfires were worse because there are small places around that haven't been upkept. During the dustbowl era there were more farms around without vegetation. I saw cedar trees literally FLASH, just like gasoline does, in the 40 MPH winds on one wildfire. Each day a new wildfire started somewhere. There were people who spread their hay out to different locations on their places and some still lost everything, even with fire breaks plowed.
I was LMAO at the posts stating, "Famers were burning needles off of prickly pear and feeding them to cows in the 50's...." Most of the prickly pear on my place looked like dried up pieces of carboard and it readily burned. Also, if you burned anything you were fined $2,000.
You can't even strike an arc with a welding rod. They were throwing welders in jail and the landowners too if they violated the ban. I have stacks of tube steel to build panels and chutes with still cannot strike an arc. Can't use outdoor grills either.
There were places north and west of here that received over 20 inches of rain in the early fall and drought striken areas on the flood plains were flooded out. Possum Kingdom Lake picked up 7 feet and they were dumping heavy.
I haven't seen a misquito in 11 months.