Dr. Carl Ojala was a professor at Eastern Michigan University in the Department of Geography and Geology. While at EMU, Ojala operated the EMU-NWS cooperative weather station, in addition to teaching. His primary research interests included severe and unusual weather and climatic change. In 1970 he was promoted to Associate Professor, and served as Professor from 1981 to 2003, when he retired. In 2004 he was nominated for and became an Emeritus Professor.

The Carl Ojala papers have been divided into two series: Career and Legacy and Writing and Publishing. The Career and Legacy series includes materials such as newspaper clippings, press release, CVs, photographs, and faculty administrative paperwork. It also includes a subseries titled Weather Station Statistics that are arranged chronologically by month and date between 1969 and 2004. The Writing and Publishing series includes many articles and essays written by Dr. Ojala. The majority of these are included in their published formats, in many cases as part of an academic journal. There is one folder of miscellaneous articles that were loosely filed, and a bibliography of his publications.