San Diego gets an average of 11 inches of rain annually, most of it coming in December and January.

I think the only reason why the average annual rainfall is so high is because every seven or eight years we get deluged with 15-23 inches of rain, usually because of an El Niño winter.

It is not unusual for San Diego to suffer through several years of drought, but drought is a term used only when people are involved.

San Diego actually is a desert, and deserts typically don't get much rain. However, a desert with people that doesn't get much rain is a community suffering through a drought.

Way back in 1915, San Diego was host of the Panama-California exposition celebrating the opening of the Panama Canal.

San Diego was chosen because it would be the first port of call in the United States from ships coming through the Canal.

Unfortunately, San Diego was suffering through four years of drought, which meant that it looked like, well, a desert. In December 1915, San Diego called in Charles Hatfield (1875?-1958), a noted rainmaker in Southern California.

Hatfield was born in Kansas in 1875 or 1876. His family moved to Southern California sometime in the 1880s. Hatfield became interested in "pluviculture" and by 1902 had created a secret mixture of 23 chemicals that he claimed would produce rain. In 1904 some Los Angeles area ranches asked him to produce rain for their herds. He succeeded; the ranches paid him $100. Shortly thereafter, he promised the City of Los Angeles a total of 18 inches. Again he was successful, and collected $1,000, an extraordinary sum at that time.

When the City of San Diego came calling on Hatfield to fill the Morena Reservoir, Hatfield offered to do it for free up to forty inches of rain, $1000 per inch between forty and fifty inches, and then free again after fifty inches. San Diego approved the fee of $10,000 by a vote of four to one.

On January 5, 1916, heavy rains came and didn't stop until January 20, picking up again on January 22 and not stopping until February 4. Dry riverbeds flooded, destroying bridges, homes, farms, ranches, railroad tracks, and phone lines. Both the Sweetwater Dam and the Lower Otay Dam overflowed, with the Lower Otay Dam failing on January 27 (see picture) and causing about 20 deaths (exact number not known). Out of the city's 112 bridges, only two were not swept away.

The City of San Diego refused to pay Hatfield unless he would take liability for all the damage, $3.5 million but still escalating. Additionally, there was no written contract between the parties. Hatfield sued the City, but in two trials the rain was ruled an act of Mother and Father Nature. Hatfield continued the lawsuit until 1938 when it was finally thrown out.

Hatfield took his formula with him when he died. He is buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California, a cemetery that is home to the rich and famous — Gracie Allen and George Burns, Lucille Ball, Humphrey Bogart, Nat King Cole, Bob Cummings, Sammy Davis Jr., Walt Disney, Don Drysdale, Clark Gable, Michael Jackson, Red Skelton, Jimmy Stewart, and many others.

Hatfield's life resulted in a movie in 1956, "The Rainmaker," starring Burt Lancaster.

If you want to buy a home in this wonderful desert that we call San Diego, please contact me.

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If you have a cat, or used to have a cat,
and have a picture of the little darling, post it here.

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I'm available 24/7, so feel free to contact me by phone or email.

Jim Frimmer, Realtor
Century 21 Award Mission Valley
California DRE License #01458572
619-729-5701
jimfrimmer@century21award.com
Mission Valley Condos Information

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