New York Ground Snow Load: The Code and the Local Figures

New York 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 authority having jurisdiction, meaning the city, town or village building department where the work is, working from the figure in the state adopted code. four figures published by New York bodies themselves are set out below. 17 states are in the same position, which makes it the second commonest arrangement in the country. four New York figures, running from 25 psf at New York City to 60, 64, 66 or 68 at Town Of Ephratah, Fulton County, New York, every one of them quoted from the document it was printed in. Nationally 235 figures were read across 33 states.

The authority having jurisdiction, meaning the city, town or village building department where the work is, working from the figure in the state adopted code: the state prints the map and the elevation rule and leaves each building department to write the number for its own jurisdiction into the design criteria table. In its own words: “o. [NY] The authority having jurisdiction shall fill in this section of the allowable stress design table using the Ground Snow Loads in Figure R301.2(3) in accordance with Section R301.2.3.”

Part of New York 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: “[NY] The ground snow loads to be used in determining the design snow loads for roofs are given in Figure R301.2(6) for sites at elevations up to 1,000 feet. Sites at elevations above 1,000 feet shall have their ground snow load increased from the mapped value by 2 psf for every 100 feet above 1,000 feet.”

The figure moves with elevation in New York, which is the hardest case for a reader: two houses a mile apart and a thousand feet apart take different numbers, and 13 states are keyed this way. The published New York figures run from 25 psf to 60, 64, 66 or 68.

New York State Department of State, Division of Building Standards and Codes adopts 2020 Residential Code of New York State (2020 RCNYS), Part 1220 of Title 19 of the Official Compilation of Codes, Rules and Regulations of the State of New York (2020 RCNYS). New York amended it rather than adopting it whole, and 22 states have done the same. The adopting rule reads: “(b) Incorporation by reference. The 2020 RCNYS is incorporated herein by reference. Copies of the 2020 RCNYS may be obtained from the publisher at the following address: International Code Council, Inc.”

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 authority having jurisdiction, meaning the city, town or village building department where the work is, working from the figure in the state adopted code 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 authority having jurisdiction, meaning the city, town or village building department where the work is, working from the figure in the state adopted code. The document behind it is Part 1220 Residential Construction, Section 1220.3. Changes to the text of the 2020 RCNYS, subdivision (a), amended footnote o of Table R301.2(1), published by New York State Department of State, Division of Building Standards and Codes, read on September 23, 2026. It establishes the point this way: “[NY] The ground snow loads to be used in determining the design snow loads for roofs are given in Figure R301.2(6) for sites at elevations up to 1,000 feet. Sites at elevations above 1,000 feet shall have their ground snow load increased from the mapped value by 2 psf for every 100 feet above 1,000 feet.”

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.