Henry Frank Diaz MCH (Making Climate History) Oral History Interview

Oral history interview with Henry Frank Diaz conducted by Sarah Dry on 18th August 2023 as part of the Making Climate History project. Diaz Time-stamped Summary [Track 1] Recollections of parents; growing up in Cuba, Miami and NJ [I: 00:41] Leaving Cuba in 1958 and returning in 1959 after Castro’s revolution [I: 04:47] Interests in meteorology/hurricanes and schooling [I: 09:25] Moving from community college to university at Florida State University [I: 15:54] Reasons for studying meteorology, undertaking a Master’s, first job at NOAA in DC [I: 18:14] Moving on and first job at NCDC Asheville [I: 25:23] Working at NCDC, in the archives, meteorology and climate [I: 28:35] Using data to make maps and atlases: [I: 34:31] Meeting J. Murray Mitchell [36:31] Meeting Ray Bradley and Barry at Tucson; decision to stay on in Boulder with Jim Fletcher [I: 37:41] June 1977 Tucson meeting at Tree Ring Lab organised by Fritts [I: 42:19] 1976 First Climate Diagnostics workshop in 1976, and meeting Jerry Namias [I: 47:00] Attending the 1979 UEA meeting [I: 56:08] DOE grant [I: 1:03:13] Ways of working with lots of data [I: 1:07:27] Boulder in later 1980s; working with Ray Bradley and Martin Beniston [I: 1:20:24] High elevation work and Europe [I: 1:22:32] [Track 2] Work and travel on COADs (NOAA Comprehensive Ocean-Atmosphere Data Set) [II: 00:33] Chinese and Soviet data and meetings [II: 08:06] India’s role in digitizing of Maury papers [II: 15:29] Brazil’s data and digital protection [II: 18:09] Origins of COADs and Diaz’ role [II: 26:08] Northern Hemisphere temperature data set [II: 29:02] Relationship to climate models and modeling [II: 33:47] Historical evidence of El Niño and role of El Niño in climate/weather [II: 39:48] Global land precipitation data set, role of hemispheres [II: [46:20] Developing a ‘feeling for the data’ [II: 52:54] [Track 3] Remote elevation area warming work and establishment of HIGHEST meetings in the 1990s; CIRMOUNT research group in the 2000s [III: 00:28] DOE Workshop on ‘Greenhouse-Gas-Induced Climatic Change’ organized by Mike Schlesinger in 1989 [III: 13:18] Jim Hansen’s model and use of data [III: 17:26] Work on tropical cyclone datasets [III: 22:09] [Track 4] Climate extremes and insurance companies [IV: 00:00] Changing working environment at NOAA [IV: 04:44] Working physically in the Tree Ring Lab [IV: 07:18] The Medieval Warm Period/Medieval Climate Anomaly [IV: 10:57] Minor involvement in the IPCC [IV: 20:18] Impact of administration changes on work as a federal employee [IV: 21:43] Visiting and eventually moving to Hawai’i [IV: 28:51] 2023 fires on Hawai’i [IV: 31:46] Working with colleagues in Spain to gather and understand historical colonial data, especially in relation to El Niño [IV: 38:05] Advocating for climate divisions Hawai’i [IV: 1:01:26]