Background
Rasmussen was born in Hutchinson, Kansas to James and Ilse Rasmussen in 1957.
Rasmussen was born in Hutchinson, Kansas to James and Ilse Rasmussen in 1957.
Rasmussen was born in Hutchinson, Kansas to James and Ilse Rasmussen in 1957. His younger brother Neal, a software engineer, is also a storm chaser and is an accomplished videographer and photographer. Erik married Lisa Walters, an atmospheric scientist and oceanographer before embarking on a career as a pharmacist, and a storm chaser, in 1984.
Rasmussen"s undergraduate meteorology study was at the University of Oklahoma (OU) in Norman where he received a Bachelor of Science in 1980.
Here he was introduced to field research under Howard Bluestein, chasing supercells and tornadoes, and learning about thunderstorm structure and processes.
He went on to graduate school at Texas Technical University (TTU) in Lubbock where he earned a Master of Science in atmospheric sciences in 1982. In graduate school he developed a reputation as a particularly adept forecaster and interceptor of severe storms and tornadoes and was nicknamed "The Dryline Kid" in reference to the dry line which initiates isolated storms and attendant tornadoes.
His thesis was The Tulia Outbreak Storm: Mesoscale Evolution and Photogrammetric Analysis.
From 1982-1984, Rasmussen pursued further postgraduate work at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). He worked at West.A.R.N. Incorporated., Now Weather Incorporated., WeatherData Incorporated., and PROFS (which became the Forecast Systems Laboratory or FSL before that unit was merged into the Earth System Research Laboratory or ESRL).
He finished his Doctor of Philosophy at Colorado State University (Christlich Soziale Union (Christian Social Union)) in Fort
Collins in 1992. At Christlich Soziale Union (Christian Social Union) he participated in more field work, including researching squall lines in Australia and his dissertation was titled Observational and Theoretical Study of Squall Lincolnshire Evolution.
He was the field coordinator of the first of the VORTEX projects in 1994-1995 and a lead principal investigator for VORTEX2 from 2009-2010. Education Rasmussen became a research meteorologist at the National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL) and then the Cooperative Institute for Mesoscale Meteorological Studies (CIMMS). After the study of squall lines his interest returned to supercells from the microphysical aspects of cloud particles to mesoscale environments modulating storm behavior.
He was the field commander (Football Club) of Project VORTEX in 1994-1995 where he worked with lead forecaster Charles A. Doswell III, participated in SUB-VORTEX and VORTEX-99, STEPS, IHOP, and served on the steering committee and was a lead principal investigator (Principal Investigator) for VORTEX2 in 2009-2010.
Since his college days Rasmussen was a major contributor to Storm Track magazine although by the mid-1990s his previously intense interest in storm chasing was waning. Foreign years he did research and computer programming through his company Rasmussen Systems located near Grand Junction, Colorado.
This work remains supported by the National Science Foundation (National Science Foundation) and he consults for NSSL and CIMMS, private meteorological companies, and other entities. In 2015, Rasmussen moved back to Norman, where he continues this aforementioned work and serves as Program Manager for the upcoming VORTEX-Southeast project
