South Carolina Ground Snow Load: What the Adopted Code Carries

South Carolina 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 South Carolina Building Codes Council, and the county or municipal building department that enforces the code. 17 states are in the same position, which makes it the second commonest arrangement in the country. South Carolina publishes ground snow loads through South Carolina Building Codes Council, and the county or municipal building department that enforces the code, and the jurisdictions reached for this had put none into a public document at the time they were read.

South Carolina Building Codes Council, and the county or municipal building department that enforces the code: the state adopts the national code and every municipality and county enforces it. In its own words: “(A) The council shall adopt by reference and amend only the latest editions of the following nationally recognized codes and the standards referenced in those codes for regulation of construction within this State: building, residential, gas, plumbing, mechanical, fire, and energy codes as promulgated, published, or made available by the International Code Council, Inc. and the National Electrical Code as published by the National Fire Protection Association.”

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

South Carolina Building Codes Council adopts 2021 South Carolina Building Code / 2021 South Carolina Residential Code (2021, implementation date January 1, 2023). South Carolina amended it rather than adopting it whole, and 22 states have done the same. The adopting rule reads: “On October 6, 2021, the South Carolina Building Codes Council adopted the latest editions of the mandatory codes and appendices with modifications, as referenced in S.C. Code Ann. §6-9-50 (1976, as amended), to be enforced by all municipalities and counties in South Carolina. The Council established the implementation date for local jurisdictions as January 1, 2023.”

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. South Carolina Building Codes Council, and the county or municipal building department that enforces the 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 South Carolina Building Codes Council, and the county or municipal building department that enforces the code. The document behind it is 2021 South Carolina Code Adoptions, published by South Carolina Building Codes Council, read on September 23, 2026. It establishes the point this way: “2021 South Carolina Building Code or the 2021 International Building Code with SC modifications 2021 South Carolina Residential Code or the 2021 International Residential Code with SC modifications”

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.