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The cities through the Ogden, Salt Lake City, and Provo corridor can receive significant lake-effect snowfall from the Great Salt Lake every year. The high salinity (that keeps the lake from freezing), large surface area (approximately 1700 square miles) and shallow water depth (approximately 4 feet) often keep the correct conditions for lake effect snows to develop during a storm system in the Fall and Spring. The most common lake effect event is after the passage of a cold front with the temperature difference between the Great Salt Lake and the air above it of greater that 30 °F, and a West, Northwest, or North wind flow. As the wind blows across the open lake, the warm, moist lake air rises in the cold air above it, causing dense clouds to form. These clouds then drop snowfall downwind of the lake. Ten percent of the annual 65” of snowfall in the Salt Lake City area is attributed to lake effect snow.

Lake effect snowfall may be possible under the perfect atmospheric conditions across American Falls given the correct wind direction and temperature difference between the surface of the lake and air above it either in the early Fall or late Spring time. However, according to Dean Hazen, Science and Operations Officer with the Pocatello National Weather Service, no lake effect snow has been observed from the American Falls Reservoir. The reservoir is too small and freezes over during the winter which hinders the lake from creating its own weather.