Mississippi Ground Snow Load: Who Sets It

Mississippi sets no ground snow load at state level, so every figure comes from a county or city building department. The body to ask is the county board of supervisors or the municipal governing authority, and the Mississippi Building Codes Council for the codes they may choose from. 19 states work this way, which is why a search for one Mississippi figure comes back with several different answers from several different pages, all of them correct for the place they were written for. Mississippi publishes ground snow loads through the county board of supervisors or the municipal governing authority, and the Mississippi Building Codes Council for the codes they may choose from, and the jurisdictions reached for this had put none into a public document at the time they were read.

The county board of supervisors or the municipal governing authority, and the Mississippi Building Codes Council for the codes they may choose from: each county and municipality picks its edition, and some opted out of having a code at all. In its own words: “(3) Within one hundred twenty (120) days after the provisions of this section go into effect, the board of supervisors of a county and/or the governing authorities of any municipality within a county, upon resolution duly adopted and entered upon its minutes, may choose not to be subject to the code requirements imposed under this section.”

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

the county board of supervisors or municipal governing authority, from codes adopted and amended by the Mississippi Building Codes Council adopts State Uniform Construction Code (one of the last three adopted editions of the International Building Code or International Residential Code, as each county or municipality chooses). Mississippi adopted it as written. The adopting rule reads: “(1) Except as provided in Section 17-2-1(1) and subsection (3) of this section, a county board of supervisors or municipal governing authority shall adopt and amend as minimum codes one (1) of the following as the State Uniform Construction Code: (a) One (1) of the last three (3) adopted editions of the International Building Code (IBC) and any specific appendix or appendices as adopted and amended by the Mississippi Building Codes 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 board of supervisors or the municipal governing authority, and the Mississippi Building Codes Council for the codes they may choose from works in loads for that reason, and so does every figure set out below.

A Mississippi figure for an address the documents below do not cover comes from the county board of supervisors or the municipal governing authority, and the Mississippi Building Codes Council for the codes they may choose from. The document behind it is Mississippi Uniform Building Codes, published by Mississippi State Fire Marshal, Mississippi Insurance Department, read on September 23, 2026. It establishes the point this way: “Under Senate Bill 2378 of 2014, all counties and municipalities must enact uniform building codes unless they opt out prior to Nov. 30, 2014.”

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.