Alaska Ground Snow Load: The Code and the Local Figures

Alaska adopts the national building code without a ground snow load amendment of its own, so the governing figure for a given address is the one the code's own table carries, and the body that applies it is the city or borough building department, and the Alaska state fire marshal's Division of Fire and Life Safety where a municipality has been exempted. four figures published by Alaska bodies themselves are set out below. 17 states are in the same position, which makes it the second commonest arrangement in the country. four Alaska figures, running from 60 pounds per square foot at City of Fairbanks to 100 lbs. per square foot at Cordova, every one of them quoted from the document it was printed in. Nationally 235 figures were read across 33 states.

The city or borough building department, and the Alaska state fire marshal's Division of Fire and Life Safety where a municipality has been exempted: the state code leaves detached homes out and lets municipalities take over review. In its own words: “The state fire marshal may exempt a municipality from compliance with the requirements of 13 AAC 50.027 , if the municipality (1) has the expertise to and has enacted ordinances for the review and approval of plans and specifications and the enforcement of state fire statutes and regulations; and (2) agrees in writing to concurrently undertake or continue a building fire safety inspection program that meets or exceeds the program conducted by the division of fire and life safety.”

Alaska splits into zones or bands rather than counties, so the boundary that matters is drawn on the document itself. The published Alaska figures run from 60 pounds per square foot to 100 lbs. per square foot.

Department of Public Safety, Division of Fire and Life Safety adopts International Building Code 2021 Edition (IBC) (2021). Alaska adopted it as written. The adopting rule reads: “The International Building Code 2021 Edition (IBC), Chapters 1 — 12, 14 — 28, and 30 — 35, and Appendix C are adopted by reference to regulate all occupancies and buildings”

A ground snow load is a weight per unit area and not a depth, and the two are joined only by the density of the snow on the day, which is why the published documents give the load and leave the depth out. Wet spring snow and dry January snow of the same depth are different weights on the same roof. The city or borough building department, and the Alaska state fire marshal's Division of Fire and Life Safety where a municipality has been exempted works in loads for that reason, and so does every figure set out below.

The code's figure is applied to a given address by the city or borough building department, and the Alaska state fire marshal's Division of Fire and Life Safety where a municipality has been exempted. The document behind it is 13 AAC 50.020. International Building Code., published by Alaska Department of Public Safety, Division of Fire and Life Safety, read on September 23, 2026. It establishes the point this way: “Chapter 16, Section 1601.1 (Scope) of the IBC, is revised by adding a second paragraph to read: "This chapter is adopted as design criteria for the structural safety of buildings constructed under this code. The division of fire and life safety does not perform review for conformance with these criteria."”

14 of 50: Connecticut, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont, Wisconsin. The other 36 split into 17 that adopt the national code without a snow amendment and 19 that leave every figure to a county or city building department. That is the single most useful fact about this subject and no one state's own website carries it.