SummaryThis paper evaluates the performance of a spectral‐amplitude‐coding optical code division multiple access (SAC‐OCDMA) system over a free space optical (FSO) communication link under various weather conditions such as fog, snow, and rain. The system uses different code families, including modified quadrature congruence (MQC), random diagonal (RD), and diagonal eigenvalue unity (DEU), to address user codes and reduce the effects of multiple access interference (MAI). The system's bit error rate (BER) performance has been analyzed taking into account receiver noises and MAI, and calculates the required optical power for a BER value of 10−9 under different weather conditions. The results show that fog has the most significant impact on the system's performance, while rainy conditions require the lowest optical power. The performance of the system also declines with increasing transmission length and concurrent user count. Finally, the paper compares the performance of different code families under unfavorable weather conditions and concludes that DEU performs better than MQC and RD in bad weather.