New Jersey Ground Snow Load by County and Town

New Jersey publishes its own table of ground snow loads, BULLETIN 19-1 (Supersedes Bulletins 94-8, 03-4 and 05-2), Design Loads for Ground Snow, Wind and Seismic, through New Jersey Department of Community Affairs, Division of Codes and Standards. six 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. six New Jersey figures, running from 30 psf at Somerset to 50 psf at Sussex, every one of them quoted from the document it was printed in. Nationally 235 figures were read across 33 states.

New Jersey Department of Community Affairs, Division of Codes and Standards: the state's own rule fills the ground snow load cell of the design criteria table with a pointer to its bulletin, and the bulletin sends a reader to the national hazard websites for a site figure and to its six county list where those websites return case study. In its own words: “Site-specific hazard information to determine design loads for buildings and other structures can be obtained from the Applied Technology Council’s website at https://hazards.atcouncil.org/; alternatively, one may use the American Society of Civil Engineer’s website at https://asce7hazardtool.online/.”

Part of New Jersey is a case study area, meaning the published document expressly declines to give those places a figure and sends the designer back to the local building department for one. 16 states carry a rule like this, and it is the commonest reason a search for a single number comes back empty. The rule reads: “If the website returns with "case study (CS)," one may use withdrawn Bulletin 94-8 values for the following counties: Sussex, 50 psf; Warren, 35 psf; Hunterdon, 35psf; Passaic, 40 psf; Morris, 35 psf; Somerset, 30 psf. All other counties should generate a load number.”

The figure is keyed to the county in New Jersey, as it is in 21 states, so the county line rather than the town line is what changes the answer. The published New Jersey figures run from 30 psf to 50 psf.

New Jersey Department of Community Affairs, Division of Codes and Standards adopts One- and two-family dwelling subcode, N.J.A.C. 5:23-3.21, adopting the 2024 International Residential Code; building subcode, N.J.A.C. 5:23-3.14, adopting the 2024 International Building Code (IRC/2024 and IBC/2024). New Jersey amended it rather than adopting it whole, and 22 states have done the same. The adopting rule reads: “1. Pursuant to the authority at P.L. 1975, c. 217, as modified at P.L. 1996, c. 53, the Commissioner hereby adopts the model code of the International Code Council, 2024 International Residential Code known as the IRC/2024 as the one- and two-family dwelling subcode in New Jersey subject to the modifications stated at (c) below.”

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. New Jersey Department of Community Affairs, Division of Codes and Standards works in loads for that reason, and so does every figure set out below.

The New Jersey document itself is the place to look a town up, and what it prints is applied by New Jersey Department of Community Affairs, Division of Codes and Standards. The document behind it is BULLETIN 19-1 (Supersedes Bulletins 94-8, 03-4 and 05-2), Design Loads for Ground Snow, Wind and Seismic, published by New Jersey Department of Community Affairs, Division of Codes and Standards, read on September 23, 2026. It establishes the point this way: “ii. Table R301.2, Climatic and Geographic Design Criteria, shall be amended as follows: 1. Under the heading of "Ground Snow Load," insert "see Bulletin 19-1";”

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.