The large-scale and mesoscale structure of the Great Salt Lake–effect snowstorm of 7 December 1998 is examined using radar analyses, high-density surface observations, conventional meteorological data, and a simulation by the Pennsylvania State University–National Center for Atmospheric Research fifth generation Mesoscale Model (MM5). Environmental conditions during the event were characterized by a lake–700-hPa temperature difference of up to 22.5°C, a lake–land temperature difference as large as 10°C, and conditionally unstable low-level lapse rates. The primary snowband of the event formed along a land-breeze front near the west shoreline of the Great Salt Lake. The snowband then migrated eastward and merged with a weaker snowband as the land-breeze front moved eastward, offshore flow developed from the eastern shoreline, and low-level convergence developed near the midlake axis. Snowfall accumulations reached 36 cm and were heaviest in a narrow, 10-km-wide band that extended downstream from t... Abstract The large-scale and mesoscale structure of the Great Salt Lake–effect snowstorm of 7 December 1998 is examined using radar analyses, high-density surface observations, conventional meteorological data, and a simulation by the Pennsylvania State University–National Center for Atmospheric Research fifth generation Mesoscale Model (MM5). Environmental conditions during the event were characterized by a lake–700-hPa temperature difference of up to 22.5°C, a lake–land temperature difference as large as 10°C, and conditionally unstable low-level lapse rates. The primary snowband of the event formed along a land-breeze front near the west shoreline of the Great Salt Lake. The snowband then migrated eastward and merged with a weaker snowband as the land-breeze front moved eastward, offshore flow developed from the eastern shoreline, and low-level convergence developed near the midlake axis. Snowfall accumulations reached 36 cm and were heaviest in a narrow, 10-km-wide band that extended downstream from t...