Oklahoma Ground Snow Load by County and City

Oklahoma sets no ground snow load at state level, so every figure comes from a county or city building department. Six figures from Oklahoma 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 Oklahoma figure comes back with several different answers from several different pages, all of them correct for the place they were written for. six figures for Oklahoma, each reading 10 lbs. per square foot, each quoted from the document it was printed in.

The city or county building department, as the authority having jurisdiction under the Oklahoma Uniform Building Code Commission's rules: the statewide rule leaves the snow cell empty and names the local jurisdiction as the one who fills it. In its own words: “Footnote "o" reads: "The jurisdiction shall fill in this section of the allowable stress design table using the Ground Snow Loads in Figure R301.2(3)."”

Oklahoma splits into zones or bands rather than counties, so the boundary that matters is drawn on the document itself.

Oklahoma Uniform Building Code Commission adopts International Residential Code (2024 Edition, second printing (October 2024)). Oklahoma adopted it as written. The adopting rule reads: “The Oklahoma Uniform Building Code Commission (the "OUBCC") hereby adopts the International Residential Code®, 2024 Edition (IRC® 2024), second printing (October 2024) as amended and modified in this subchapter to be the statewide minimum code for residential construction within the State of Oklahoma for one- and two-family dwellings and townhouses pursuant to 59 O.S. § 1000.23.”

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 city or county building department, as the authority having jurisdiction under the Oklahoma Uniform Building Code Commission's rules works in loads for that reason, and so does every figure set out below.

A Oklahoma figure for an address the documents below do not cover comes from the city or county building department, as the authority having jurisdiction under the Oklahoma Uniform Building Code Commission's rules. The document behind it is Title 748 Chapter 20 Subchapter 6, 748:20-6-8 IRC 2024 Chapter 3 Building Planning, published by Oklahoma Uniform Building Code Commission, read on September 23, 2026. It establishes the point this way: “Row 2, column 1 has been left blank for the authority having jurisdiction to complete based on local conditions as required in footnote "o."”

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.