The 1934 drought was the worst ever recorded in North America during the last 1,000 years, according to a new NASA study.

Also known as the Dust Bowl Days and the Dirty Thirties, the 1934 drought was 30 percent more disastrous compared to the 1580 drought that covered 72 percent of western North America. This year's U.S. drought covers only 60 percent of the western states.

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The 1934 drought is definitely the worst measured by a large margin and was far off from the normal range of variability that scientists usually observe, said to climate scientist Ben Cook from NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies.

There were apparently two major events that occurred to concoct the 1934 drought. The first one involved a high pressure system that loomed over the U.S. west coast that averted rains.

The second was poor land and agriculture management that hindered the evaporation that would have helped form rainclouds.

This combination made for a deadly mix and caused the entire U.S. to suffer during this period, said study co-author Richard Seager.

Their findings were based on the tree-ring drought record from the years 1000 to 2005 and modern day records that concluded the 1934 drought was indeed the worst in U.S. history.

According to the recent Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), climate change will most likely cause severe droughts in North America so scientists are searching for clues from past events.

Scientists are also especially concerned that fossil fuels continue to burn at an unprecedented rate along with fracking. These will fan the flames of climate change and can lead to megadroughts lasting up to 30 years.

This new study was published in the journal, Geophysical Research Letters.

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