Dust-bowl

noun
1.
the region in the S central U.S. that suffered from dust storms in the 1930s.
2.
(lowercase) any similar dry region elsewhere.
noun
1.
a semiarid area in which the surface soil is exposed to wind erosion and dust storms occur
noun
1.
the Dust Bowl, the area of the south central US that became denuded of topsoil by wind erosion during the droughts of the mid-1930s

also dustbowl, “drought-plagued region of the U.S. Midwest,” first recorded 1936.

A parched region of the Great Plains, including parts of Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Texas, where a combination of drought and soil erosion created enormous dust storms in the 1930s. The novel The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck, describes the plight of the “Okies” and “Arkies” uprooted by the drought and forced to migrate to California.