The impact of the drought currently gripping the United States is real and tangible, as millions can attest. But the depth of the pain still falls short of that experienced by many in the Great Plains and beyond during the so-called Dust Bowl era of the 1930s.
Here is a look -- by the numbers -- comparing what happened then and what's happening now, both times due to pervasive and historic droughts.
The Dust Bowl days
8: The years of the general duration of the so-called Dust Bowl era, from 1931 to 1939
3.5 million: People who left their homes in the Great Plains and beyond due to drought
250,000: Families who lost their farms and ranches to bank foreclosures
60 mph: Speed of winds pushing a huge dust cloud on April 13, 1935, through Colorado, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and beyond -- causing hundreds of deaths -- during what is called "Black Sunday"
5: The string of years in the 1930s of the warmest temperatures ever recorded until recently in Amarillo, Texas
74: The degrees of temperature drop in an 18-hour span in Boise City, Oklahoma, in February 1933, as Dust Bowl winters were often bitterly cold
20 million: Hectares of range and farmland ruined annually during the Dust Bowl era