Among the mesoscale phenomena that are produced by the interaction of the synoptic scale flow with the complex orography of the western United States are post-frontal convective snowbands that form over Northern Utah. These snowbands develop over and downwind of the Great Salt Lake during periods of northwesterly low-level flow and produce heavy snowfall over the Salt Lake metropolitan area. Observations from a National Weather Service WSR-88D radar and a local mesoscale network known as the Utah Mesonet are being used to describe the evolution of two snowband events that occurred during the winter of 1995-96. High resolution numerical simulations by the non-hydrostatic Penn State/NCAR Mesoscale Model are also being applied to isolate the role of regional orographic features, such as the Great Salt Lake, Wasatch Mountains, and Oquirrh Mountains, in generating and intensifying the snowbands. Preliminary results suggest that the snowbands are associated with a line of low-level convergence that extends from the Great Salt Lake downstream over the Salt Lake Valley. Future work will examine the role of thermally-driven land breezes from the opposing lake shores, and mechanically driven circulations produced by the Wasatch and Oquirrh Mountains, in generating the low level convergence zone.