A sandstorm (or dust storm) has been called “West Texas rain.” The humorous bit of slang is not based on fact; it rains in West Texas much more often than you’ll see a sandstorm.
Google Books
I Give You Texas!
500 Jokes of the Lone Star State
by Boyce House
San Antonio: Naylor Company
1943
Pg. 8:
A West Texas rain: a sandstorm.
1 July 1968, Dallas Morning News, section C, pg. 7:
Ted Sheehan, forecaster at the U.S. Weather Bureau at Lubbock Municipal Airport, discovered that dust storms—sometimes called “West Texas rain”—occurred only 2 per cent of the time from 1949 through 1967.
Google Books
Paisanos, a Folklore Miscellany
edited by Francis Edward Abernethy
Austin, TX: Encino Press
1978
Pg. 93:
Dust storms have long been called “West Texas Rain.”
Above, a 1934 plaque from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem. Discarded as trash in 2006. Now a Popeyes fast food restaurant on Google Maps.
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Above, Big Apple Corner at 54th Street and Broadway in Manhattan. Google Maps. Stolen and missing, 2021-2024.
Above, John J. Fitz Gerald, from the Aug. 15, 1931, Binghamton (NY) Press, pg. 14.
Listen to Robert Emmerich introduce "The Big Apple," a hit song from 1937. Music written by Bob and performed by Tommy Dorsey's Clambake Seven with Bob on piano. Lyrics written by Buddy Bernier and sung by Edythe Wright. Audio provided by Dorothy Emmerich.
Also listen to a 1937 "The Big Apple" song by Ozzie Nelson and his Orchestra. See a 1929 photo of John J. Fitz Gerald and a 1931 photo of John J. Fitz Gerald.
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