TAHOE/TRUCKEE, Calif. and#8212; Avid fans of the American rock
group Widespread Panic are familiar with their tune
and#8220;Hatfield.and#8221; The song spins a true tale about an
early 20th century rainmaker named Charles Hatfield who was
famous for producing rain during droughts. In December 1915 San
Diegoand#8217;s city council promised to pay Hatfield $10,000 if
he could generate enough precipitation to break a four-year
drought that had dried up local reservoirs. In negotiation with
the city, Hatfield insisted he could fill the cityand#8217;s
Morena Reservoir within one year for the sum of $10,000. Even
though San Diego averages little more than 10 inches of rain a
year, he said he would deliver 30 inches of rain for free, but
then he wanted $500 per inch for the next 20 inches. It was an
outlandish proposition, but Hatfield would be good to his word,
and then some! Hatfield was a and#8220;pluviculturist,and#8221;
a term coined to describe the type of pseudo-scientific quackery
regarding weather modificat