(OPINION) Absolutely gigantic dust storms are “triggering massive highway pileups” in the middle of the country, virtually the entire Southwest is currently experiencing at least some level of drought, and dust storms and soil erosion are now costing our economy more than 100 billion dollars every year.

If you think that what we are witnessing is “normal”, you simply are not being rational. The same conditions that prevailed during the Dust Bowl years of the 1930s are returning, and scientists have warned us that the megadrought that has now begun could continue for a long time to come.

Last month, a “series of enormous dust storms” caused a tremendous amount of chaos throughout the middle portion of the nation…

A series of enormous dust storms swept the plains states last week, triggering massive highway pileups, a spike in emergency room visits, and “dirty rain” a thousand miles away.

The storms were driven by winds in excess of 70 mph across a vast stretch of dry fields and prairie from New Mexico and western Texas.

In Kansas, at least 55 vehicles were involved in one particular highway pileup, and eight people ended up dying…

At least eight people died after more than 55 vehicles were involved in a crash due to a dust storm in Kansas, authorities said Saturday.

At 3:22 p.m. local time on Friday, high winds moved into northwest Kansas from Colorado, causing a severe dust storm, leading to traffic to slow due to near-zero visibility, resulting in multiple crashes on I-70.

Eight people died in the interstate pile-up, and numerous injuries were reported, the Kansas Highway Patrol said Saturday.

There were also vehicle pileups and traffic fatalities in Texas…

In Texas, four people were killed in car crashes around the city of Amarillo caused by a dust storm on Friday, according to the state’s public safety department.

One of the deaths happened after three lorries collided with four other vehicles in Palmer County, Bovina’s fire chief Cesar Marquez said. Another occurred after a pile-up of an estimated 38 cars.

“It’s the worst I’ve ever seen,” public safety department sergeant Cindy Barkley said, calling the near-zero visibility a nightmare.

Please read that last sentence again.

This is something that I keep hearing over and over.

Nobody has ever seen it this bad.

As far north as Wisconsin, people were being warned to stay inside during the dust storms that suddenly erupted last month…

In their wake, air quality readings spiked well beyond levels deemed hazardous by the Environmental Protection Agency. Public health officials warned millions of people as far away as Wisconsin to stay indoors as the dust swept through.

“I’ve never been hit in the face with a shovel, but I imagine it feels something like this,” said a social media user in New Mexico who was diagnosed with dust pneumonia after visiting the hospital.

When the dust is so bad that it makes you feel like you have “been hit in the face with a shovel”, that is a sign that Dust Bowl conditions have returned to your community.

Let’s just be real honest here.

Everything is not going to be okay, and the Southwest just keeps on getting even drier.

According to one report, the state of Texas “has struggled mightily in the rainfall department” so far in 2025…

Since the start of 2025, Texas has struggled mightily in the rainfall department. With the exception of the Piney Woods and parts of Southeast Texas near Houston, it has been a very, very dry start to the year. READ MORE