Every deadline, width and penalty here was read on September 23, 2026, off the city's own page or the municipal code that city hosts, and each one is quoted and linked beside the line it supports. Cities amend these ordinances between winters and several publish the deadline on a seasonal page that changes in autumn, so the link beside a line is what governs on the day.

California Sidewalk Snow Removal: 12 Hours

Q: Does snow have to be cleared from the sidewalk or the street in California?

The rules collected here are sidewalk rules, and the great majority of California cities publish a second one about where the snow may go once it has been moved, most often forbidding it on the travelled part of the road. Both come off the same city pages linked below, and the California cities that publish only the second are listed as such rather than folded in with the rest.

Q: Which cities in the country give you the least time?

St. Louis, Santa Fe, Sheridan, where the ordinance allows no hours at all. Above them, 57 of the 150 cities that count in hours give twelve hours or less, 74 give exactly a day, and 18 give more than a day. The widest gap inside a single state is Maine, from four hours to three days.

Nothing

What state law sets

37 states are in the same position

12h

What its cities allow

in the one city that counts in hours

1 of 2

Cities with an ordinance

read on one day

September 23, 2026

Read

municipal code and city pages

The short answer

South Lake Tahoe gives twelve hours, and California sets nothing above it

California has no sidewalk clearing statute at all. The clock is a city's instead, and one California city counts in hours. Nationally the deadlines run from no hours at all to three days across 150 cities, and no state legislature anywhere has put a number on it.

The city named on each line below is the one that publishes the rule and the one that answers questions about it. 53 cities nationally also publish a page for reporting a walk that has not been cleared.

Nothing at state level1 of 2 cities with an ordinance1 counting in hours

City by city, in each city’s own words

The one California city that publishes an ordinance

One California city publishes a count of hours, and each one below is quoted from the ordinance or the city page it was read from. The middle of the California figures is twelve hours, against a day nationally.

Each card below carries what that city published and nothing else: the deadline in its own sentence, the sentence it was read from, and the width, the penalty and the wording about ice where the city printed them. The chip is a band derived from the wording for sorting, not a restatement of it.

South Lake Tahoe
7h to 12h
within 12 hours after the snow event and within each 24-hour period if such an event is longer than 24 hours
During a snow event, owners and tenants are required to substantially clear the snow and ice from the improved sidewalk or walkway within 12 hours after the snow event and within each 24-hour period if such an event is longer than 24 hours.
Whose duty it is, as the ordinance puts it
owners and tenants
What it says about ice
Owners and tenants must keep sidewalks and walkways substantially free and clear of all dirt, sand, gravel, filth, rubbish, ice, and snow.
- Section City Code Sections 7.05.560 to Maintenance of Sidewalks and Walkways and 7.05.570 to Snow Maintenance
- Published by City of South Lake Tahoe
Snow Removal and Winter Preparedness, City of South Lake Tahoe, read September 23, 2026

What California itself did

California has written nothing on this

Nothing in the California statutes was found setting a sidewalk clearing deadline, which leaves the question to the cities below.

That is the national pattern rather than a California quirk. 13 of the 50 legislatures have a statute that touches sidewalk snow at all, 10 of those do nothing but let a city decide, and not one of them sets a deadline. The clock is a municipal ordinance everywhere in the country.

Nothing at state level

No California statute was found on this

has no sidewalk clearing statute at all

Where nothing was found

One California city read publishes no clearing ordinance

California's snow rules live in the mountain towns and hardly any of them are about the sidewalk: South Lake Tahoe gives owners and tenants twelve hours after a snow event, Nevada City sets a duty with no clock at all, and Truckee, Mammoth Lakes and Big Bear Lake spend their snow chapters on where you may not put the snow rather than on when the walk must be clear.

Where a city publishes no clearing ordinance, there is no municipal deadline to count against and no municipal penalty behind it, and what stands is the state's own position set out above. Each card below links to the chapter of the code it was read from. Nationally 80 of the 267 cities read are in the same position.

Los Angeles County
No ordinance found
No sidewalk clearing ordinance was found for this city.
- Published by County of Los Angeles, Code of Ordinances
Los Angeles County, California Code of Ordinances, read September 23, 2026

How California compares

The same question in the other forty nine

150 cities nationally count in hours, and the counts run from no hours at all to 72. 74 land on exactly a day, 57 give twelve hours or less, and 18 give more than a day. A further 22 set a time of day or a depth of snow rather than a count of hours at all.

The bar splits those 150 cities by how long they allow, and the table beneath it orders the states by how tight their tightest city is, which is a different ranking from how much snow a state gets.

3 of 150No hours allowed
23 of 150Six hours or less
31 of 150Within twelve hours
75 of 150Within a day
18 of 150More than a day

Fifty states and 267 cities, read September 23, 2026.
State	What the legislature did	What its cities do	With an ordinance	Tightest city
Missouri	Nothing at state level	Cities count in hours	7 of 7	ImmediatelySt. Louis
Wyoming	Nothing at state level	Cities count in hours	3 of 3	ImmediatelySheridan
New Mexico	A cross reference	Cities count in hours	1 of 4	ImmediatelySanta Fe
Michigan	Nothing found	Cities count in hours	7 of 7	2hMarquette
Maryland	Nothing found	Cities count in hours	8 of 8	3hAnnapolis
Massachusetts	A city may	Cities count in hours	8 of 8	3hBoston
Pennsylvania	Nothing found	Cities count in hours	7 of 7	3hErie
Virginia	A city may	Cities count in hours	6 of 7	3hRoanoke
Connecticut	A city may	Cities count in hours	8 of 8	4hDanbury
Ohio	A city may	Cities count in hours	8 of 8	4hAthens
New York	Nothing found	Cities count in hours	7 of 7	4hNew York City
Maine	A city may	Cities count in hours	4 of 8	4hWaterville
Vermont	A city may	Cities count in hours	1 of 6	4hWinooski
Rhode Island	A city may	Cities count in hours	6 of 6	5hNewport
Indiana	Nothing at state level	Cities count in hours	6 of 6	6hWest Lafayette
Nebraska	Nothing at state level	Cities count in hours	7 of 7	8hFremont
New Jersey	Nothing found	Cities count in hours	6 of 6	8hJersey City
Utah	Nothing at state level	Cities count in hours	5 of 5	8hPark City
Iowa	Owner duty, no clock	Cities count in hours	7 of 7	10hAmes
Kansas	Nothing at state level	Cities count in hours	6 of 6	12hSalina
Delaware	Nothing found	Cities count in hours	5 of 5	12hMilford
Washington	Nothing at state level	Cities count in hours	3 of 4	12hSeattle
California	Nothing at state level	Cities count in hours	1 of 2	12hSouth Lake Tahoe
North Dakota	Nothing at state level	Cities count in hours	7 of 7	24hBismarck
Wisconsin	The city clears it	Cities count in hours	7 of 7	24hGreen Bay
Colorado	Nothing at state level	Cities count in hours	6 of 6	24hAurora
Illinois	Nothing at state level	Cities count in hours	6 of 6	24hChampaign
Minnesota	A city may	Cities count in hours	6 of 6	24hDuluth
Montana	Nothing at state level	Cities count in hours	5 of 5	24hBillings
South Dakota	A city may	Cities count in hours	5 of 5	24hWatertown
Oklahoma	Nothing at state level	Cities count in hours	3 of 7	24hTulsa
West Virginia	Nothing at state level	Cities count in hours	3 of 4	24hMorgantown
Alaska	Nothing at state level	Cities count in hours	2 of 3	24hSeward
Idaho	Nothing at state level	Cities count in hours	2 of 3	24hIdaho Falls
Texas	Nothing at state level	Cities count in hours	2 of 7	24hAmarillo
Arizona	Nothing at state level	Cities count in hours	1 of 5	24hFlagstaff
Oregon	Nothing at state level	Required, no time named	2 of 3	None published
Arkansas	Nothing at state level	Set by the clock or a depth	1 of 7	None published
Kentucky	Nothing at state level	Set by the clock or a depth	1 of 3	None published
Tennessee	Nothing at state level	Required, no time named	1 of 4	None published
Alabama	Nothing at state level	No city rule found	0 of 3	None published
Florida	Nothing at state level	No city rule found	0 of 3	None published
Georgia	Nothing at state level	No city rule found	0 of 3	None published
Hawaii	Nothing at state level	No city rule found	0 of 2	None published
Louisiana	Nothing at state level	No city rule found	0 of 6	None published
Mississippi	Nothing at state level	No city rule found	0 of 3	None published
Nevada	Nothing at state level	No city rule found	0 of 3	None published
New Hampshire	A city may	No city rule found	0 of 7	None published
North Carolina	Nothing at state level	No city rule found	0 of 4	None published
South Carolina	Nothing at state level	No city rule found	0 of 3	None published

California sidewalk snow removal questions

How long do you have to shovel your sidewalk in California?

California has no sidewalk clearing statute at all. The clock is a city's instead, and one California city counts in hours. Nationally the deadlines run from no hours at all to three days across 150 cities, and no state legislature anywhere has put a number on it. One California city publishes a count of hours, and each one below is quoted from the ordinance or the city page it was read from. The middle of the California figures is twelve hours, against a day nationally.

Does California have a state law about clearing sidewalks?

Does snow have to be cleared from the sidewalk or the street in California?

Which cities in the country give you the least time?

How current is this?

Sidewalk snow removal rules in every state

California ice damsWhat builds at the eaves while the walk is being cleared, and the conditions that put it there.California ground snow loadThe other winter number a city sets and the state usually does not, and who publishes it where.California snowpackWhat is actually on the ground this winter, measured daily, against the years behind it.California frozen pipesThe other thing a long cold spell does to a building, and the temperatures it starts at.

California read September 23, 2026: the municipal code and the city published pages of the 2 cities above. Every deadline, width, penalty and duty above links to the document it was published in and is reproduced in that document’s own wording. An hour count on this site is a sorting key derived from a city’s sentence and never a replacement for it. Councils amend ordinances on their own schedule, so the section linked beside a line is what governs on the day. What a particular property owes, and to whom, is a question for the city that published the ordinance.