The San Diego Moisture Man

"Ever wonder how in the early ages of America rain was brought to the land? Well here is one answer that has both science and some mystery. No one had a thirst after this wet and wild winter."

Presented by: Cristina
Category: Historical Mystery

In 1915, San Diego was suffering from a drought. Facing pressure to to something about the rapidly declining reservoir of water, the San Diego city council hired a man named Charles Hatfield to make it rain. A sewing machine maker by trade, Charles Hatfield claimed to have a mixture of 23 chemicals that he could send up into the sky to attract rain clouds. This practice is now called cloud seeding. The fact that he had skipped out on a town in Alaska after his failure did nothing to detour the city council,who promised him $10,000 upon the filling of the reservoir.

It worked (maybe). A little too well. Hatfield began the process on New Year's Day, 1916. Four days later, in began to rain and wouldn't stop for another 2 weeks. Even then, it only stopped for 2 days before beginning again. Unable to handle the flooding and knowing that they'd be on the line for the lawsuits in they recognized Hatfield's claim of having brought the rain, the city council refused to pay on the grounds that there had been no written contract unless Hatfield assumed responsibility for the deaths and damages. Hatfield tried to settle be was eventually forced to leave town for fear of his life.

Cloud seeding is pseudo-science at best and researchers now argue that, it being an El Nino year, that San Diego wasn't actually in a drought at the time. Hatfield died in 1956 without revealing his formula.

Takeaway: No one can control the weather. If you wish for rain, be very specific.

Trivia

 * Patreon Skit: A dueling card game.