Great Salt Lake effect

In particular, snowstorms are a common occurrence over the region and have major socio-economic impacts due to their significant precipitation amounts.

The salinity of the Great Salt Lake prevents freezing but reduces the saturation vapor pressure and latent heat flux into the overlying air.

The high relief of the Wasatch mountains further capitalizes on lake enhancement and can receive multiple feet of snow from lake-effect alone.

However a review of many more cases in 2012 found that the peaks of activity was really in the fall (mid-October to mid-December) and spring (early April) and that there was a minimum between those maximum.

[3] Forecasting skill has drastically improved in recent years due to a better observational network including the NEXRAD weather radar system.