The government estimated its farmers would produce 7.3 billion bushels of corn in 1988. Instead, they produced only 4.9 billion bushels, coming in a staggering 33 percent below expectations. In alone, farmers lost 44 percent of their expected yield.
Those losses were the result of the severe drought and associated heat wave that dealt a heavy blow to agriculture and related industries across central and eastern states. It caused 7,500 fatalities, according to , and $78.8 billion in damages. At its peak, it covered 36 percent of the US (compared to the Dust Bowl's 70 percent), and led to extensive forest fires across the West, including a series of catastrophic fires in .
When the 2012 drought rolled around, many compared it to the devastation of 1988.
