ˈDust Bowl, the BrE AmE
a large area of the south-central US, including parts of Kansas and Oklahoma where, in the 1930s, strong winds and lack of rain caused ↑ erosion of the soil (=when the top layer of earth is blown away) , so that the land became unsuitable for farming. As a result, many farmers became very poor and had to leave their farms. Some of them travelled to the west coast of the US to find work, and these events are described in John Steinbeck's novel The Grapes of Wrath .