Back in 1915, San Diego was in the middle of the worst drought that it had ever experienced. The city was being hit hard by it and they were completely desperate to do something that could bring rain. Of course, desperate times does indeed mean desperate measures and it led to them hiring an individual by the name of Charles Hatfield.
Mr Hatfield was smooth enough to convince the individuals that rule San Diego that he was the man that they were looking for. His argument was that he could go ahead and make rain simply by mixing a series of chemicals together to which he had the secret potion. He was offered a total of $10,000 if he was able to make it rain, which was a huge sum of money back in those days, although it did put some pressure on his shoulders.
He built a tower and apparently fired his chemicals up into the air to accelerate moisture according to his own plan. The only problem was that he was actually just a salesman and had no experience in this kind of thing.
A few days later, the rain did indeed start, and it never stopped for almost 30 days leading to the worst floods that the city had ever had. Hatfield was clearly delighted at what he had achieved, but the city had other ideas and refused to give him his money. They stated that this was an act of God rather than anything that he himself had been able to do, but then who knows if he was indeed maybe onto something.