By February 1950, New York City was deep in the grip of a drought, and had to try something different. The Mayor hired municipal rainmaker Wallace E. Howell, a soft-spoken Harvard-educated meteorologist. Over the next year, his leadership of a small ground and air armada, and his unprecedented scientific campaign to replenish the city's Catskills reservoirs, captured the imagination of the world. Creating a portrait of this unintentional celebrity, Jim Leeke also explains why his activities stirred up controversy among government officials, farmers, and resort owners.