Tennessee Ground Snow Load: What the Adopted Code Carries

Tennessee 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 local codes enforcement agency, or the Tennessee State Fire Marshal's Office where a jurisdiction does not enforce its own codes. 17 states are in the same position, which makes it the second commonest arrangement in the country. Tennessee publishes ground snow loads through the local codes enforcement agency, or the Tennessee State Fire Marshal's Office where a jurisdiction does not enforce its own codes, and the jurisdictions reached for this had put none into a public document at the time they were read.

The local codes enforcement agency, or the Tennessee State Fire Marshal's Office where a jurisdiction does not enforce its own codes: the building department that issues the permit. In its own words: “(1) A local jurisdiction that adopts and enforces building construction and fire safety codes pursuant to T.C.A. § 68-120-101(b)(2)(A) shall forward all relevant local ordinances to the Division within sixty (60) days of adopting the ordinance.”

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

Tennessee State Fire Marshal's Office, Division of Fire Prevention, Department of Commerce and Insurance adopts Rules of the Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance, Division of Fire Prevention, Chapter 0780-02-02, Codes and Standards (Effective April 17, 2025; adopting the 2021 International Building Code and the 2018 International Residential Code). Tennessee adopted it as written. The adopting rule reads: “(a) The International Building Code (IBC), 2021 edition, published by the International Code Council (ICC), except for the following changes:”

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 local codes enforcement agency, or the Tennessee State Fire Marshal's Office where a jurisdiction does not enforce its own codes 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 local codes enforcement agency, or the Tennessee State Fire Marshal's Office where a jurisdiction does not enforce its own codes. The document behind it is Tennessee State Fire Marshal's Office Currently Adopted Codes, published by Tennessee State Fire Marshal's Office, read on September 23, 2026. It establishes the point this way: “International Residential Code (IRC), 2018 edition, published by the ICC, with amendments;”

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.