Kansas Ground Snow Load by County and City

Kansas sets no ground snow load at state level, so every figure comes from a county or city building department. One figures from Kansas counties and cities are set out below, each with the ordinance or code amendment it was printed in. 19 states work this way, which is why a search for one Kansas figure comes back with several different answers from several different pages, all of them correct for the place they were written for. one figure for Kansas, reading 20 #, quoted from the document it was printed in.

The county or the city, under its own home rule authority: a county's regulations reach only its unincorporated areas, and inside a city that city's own adopted code controls. In its own words: “SECTION 3. JURISDICTION. This Code of Regulations shall be applicable to all unincorporated areas of Johnson County, except in any unincorporated area of the County which is expressly excluded from the application and provision of the County Zoning and Subdivision Regulations. The codes, standards, or regulations adopted by a city exercising its jurisdiction over that area, if applicable, shall control and be enforced by that city”

The figure is keyed to the county in Kansas, as it is in 21 states, so the county line rather than the town line is what changes the answer.

Board of County Commissioners of Johnson County, Kansas adopts Johnson County Code of Regulations for Buildings and Construction, 2018 Edition (2018 Edition, effective July 1, 2020 (2018 International Residential Code, 2018 International Building Code, 2018 International Fire Code, 2018 International Mechanical Code, 2018 International Plumbing Code)). Kansas amended it rather than adopting it whole, and 22 states have done the same. The adopting rule reads: “On March 12, 2020 the Board of County of Commissioners voted unanimously to adopt the 2018 International Codes and the amendments in the Johnson County Code of Regulations for Buildings and Construction, 2018 Edition. The codes and regulations will be effective July 1, 2020.”

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 county or the city, under its own home rule authority works in loads for that reason, and so does every figure set out below.

A Kansas figure for an address the documents below do not cover comes from the county or the city, under its own home rule authority. The document behind it is Johnson County Code of Regulations for Buildings and Construction, 2018 Edition, published by Johnson County, Kansas, Department of Planning and Codes, read on September 23, 2026. It establishes the point this way: “SECTION 2. AUTHORITY. This Code of Regulations is adopted pursuant to the Home Rule Authority of the Board of County Commissioners of Johnson County, Kansas, pursuant to K. S. A. 19-101 and 19-101a, as currently enacted and from time to time amended.”

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.