black duster n SW, esp TX hist Cf black blizzard n, duster n 1
A severe dust storm.
1935 Galveston Daily News (TX) 15 Apr 1/5, A black duster—sun-blotting cloud banks—raced over Southwest Kansas, the Texas and Oklahoma Panhandles, and foggy haze spread about other parts of the Southwest. 1938 Salt Lake Tribune (UT) 31 May 5/3 TX, A black duster clouded over Borger at midmorning, blotted out the sun at Lubbock at 2 p. m. and forced Abilene residents to turn on their lights an hour earlier Monday night. 1956 Abilene Reporter–News (TX) 9 Apr 1/4, A black duster, borne on winds of up to 78 miles an hour, raged down from the Panhandle southwestward across Texas Sunday night, lowering visibility to zero at scores of cities. 1962 Atwood Vocab. TX 77, Black duster. A heavy sandstorm. Recorded in the Panhandle. 1977 Ogden Std.–Examiner (UT) 14 Mar sec B 1/3, A “black duster” of the Dust Bowl days of the 1930s moved slowly. Many writers who have never experienced the chilling fear of a black duster lump them in with sandstorms. A black duststorm is as different from a sandstorm as sunshine is from snow. 2006 Egan Worst Hard Time 88 TX (as of 1930), The first black duster was a curiosity, nothing else.