Re: I wonder if they did it?
Creating the humidity in the air in a small area is believable, but rain... enough rain for a town? That ion machine looks awfully small to produce large amounts of rain, or 'rain' for that matter. Rain, naturally brings humidity/humid air along, prior and mostly after(when some evaporates again).
Shakhramanian would have had to have taken wind into account so as to direct the clouds and rain in the direction he needed the rain to fall (sure, he would have).