Maryland Ground Snow Load by County and Town

Maryland publishes its own table of ground snow loads, Maryland Building Codes - Building Codes Administration, and the Table R301.2(1) documents filed by each county under Local Codes and Contacts by County, through Maryland Department of Labor, Division of Labor and Industry, Building Codes Administration. ten of its published figures are set out below with the row each was read from. Only 14 states out of 50 publish anything of their own like it; the other 36 send a reader either to the national code or to a county counter. ten Maryland figures, running from 20 pounds per square foot at Worcester County to 40 psf at Carroll County, every one of them quoted from the document it was printed in. Nationally 235 figures were read across 33 states.

The county or municipal building department, with the ordinances collected by the Maryland Department of Labor, Building Codes Administration: the state adopts the code, the local jurisdiction fills in the snow load line and files the amendment. In its own words: “A local jurisdiction may adopt local amendments to the Standards if the local amendments do not: (i) prohibit the minimum implementation and enforcement activities set forth in § 12–505 of this subtitle; (ii) weaken energy conservation and efficiency provisions contained in the Standards”

The figure is keyed to the county in Maryland, as it is in 21 states, so the county line rather than the town line is what changes the answer. The published Maryland figures run from 20 pounds per square foot to 40 psf.

Maryland Department of Labor, Division of Labor and Industry adopts Maryland Building Performance Standards (2021 International Building Code, 2021 International Residential Code for One- and Two-Family Dwellings, 2021 International Energy Conservation Code). Maryland adopted it as written. The adopting rule reads: “In this chapter, the following documents are incorporated by reference: (1) 2021 International Building Code (International Code Council); (2) 2021 International Residential Code for One- and Two-Family Dwellings (International Code Council); and (3) 2021 International Energy Conservation Code (International Code Council).”

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 municipal building department, with the ordinances collected by the Maryland Department of Labor, Building Codes Administration works in loads for that reason, and so does every figure set out below.

The Maryland document itself is the place to look a town up, and what it prints is applied by the county or municipal building department, with the ordinances collected by the Maryland Department of Labor, Building Codes Administration. The document behind it is Maryland Building Codes - Building Codes Administration, and the Table R301.2(1) documents filed by each county under Local Codes and Contacts by County, published by Maryland Department of Labor, Division of Labor and Industry, Building Codes Administration, read on September 23, 2026. It establishes the point this way: “Each local jurisdiction in Maryland may modify these codes to suit local conditions with exception to the International Energy Conservation Code (IECC - The Energy Code) and Maryland Accessibility Code (MAC - The Accessibility Code).”

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.