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.

Delaware Sidewalk Snow Removal: 12 to 24 Hours

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

The rules collected here are sidewalk rules, and the great majority of Delaware 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 Delaware 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

12 to 24h

The range across its cities

[object Object] is the tightest

5 of 5

Cities with an ordinance

2 clear it themselves and bill

September 23, 2026

Read

5 publish a penalty

The short answer

Delaware runs from twelve hours in Milford to a day in Wilmington

Delaware has no sidewalk clearing statute that any of the codes read here relies on. The clock is a city's instead, and five Delaware cities count in hours. The tightest is Milford at twelve hours and the loosest Wilmington at a day, a gap of twelve hours inside one state. 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 found5 of 5 cities with an ordinance5 counting in hours2 clear it themselves

City by city, in each city’s own words

The 5 Delaware cities that publish an ordinance

Five Delaware cities publish a count of hours, and each one below is quoted from the ordinance or the city page it was read from. A day is the commonest figure in Delaware as it is nationally: 74 of the 150 cities that count in hours land on exactly that.

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.

Milford
7h to 12h
longer than 12 hours of daylight after it has ceased snowing
It shall be unlawful for the owner or occupant of any premises abutting upon a sidewalk to permit or allow snow or ice to remain thereon for longer than 12 hours of daylight after it has ceased snowing, or to permit debris or other materials to accumulate at any time so that pedestrians cannot conveniently and safely pass.
Whose duty it is, as the ordinance puts it
the owner or occupant of any premises abutting upon a sidewalk
What it says about ice
snow and ice are treated together in the same sentence, and the same section makes the owner responsible for keeping sidewalks free of snow, ice and vegetation
- Penalty a fine of not less than $100 nor more than $500
- Section Milford City Code Sec. 197-5.B, general penalty at Sec. 1-11
- Published by City of Milford Code
§ 197-5. Responsibilities of property owners or tenants, Code of the City of Milford, read September 23, 2026
Dover
13h to 24h
when 24 hours have passed since the snowfall ends
It shall be unlawful for the owner, occupant, or person having control of any property to permit or allow sidewalk(s) abutting the property to accumulate snow or ice when 24 hours have passed since the snowfall ends.
Whose duty it is, as the ordinance puts it
the owner, occupant, or person having control of any property
What it says about ice
the section treats snow and ice together and requires the sidewalk to remain clear after the initial 24 hour period from the last snowfall ending
- Penalty $50.00 per violation
- Section Dover Code of Ordinances Sec. 98-12
- Published by City of Dover Code of Ordinances
Sec. 98-12. Snow and ice removal from sidewalks in the public right-of-way, Code of Ordinances, City of Dover, read September 23, 2026
Newark
13h to 24h
within 24 hours from the time the snow ceases to fall or the ice to form
The owner, tenant, or occupant of every building or lot within the city, or owner, claimant, agent, or person having same in charge or control when the same is not tenanted or occupied, or the owner of any property which is occupied by multiple businesses or multiple dwelling units, shall remove all snow or ice from the sidewalk abutting such property within 24 hours from the time the snow ceases to fall or the ice to form
Whose duty it is, as the ordinance puts it
the owner, tenant, or occupant of every building or lot within the city, or owner, claimant, agent, or person having same in charge or control when the same is not tenanted or occupied
What it says about ice
where the snow or ice cannot be wholly removed the section calls for sand or other proper substance to be sprinkled so the sidewalk is safe for pedestrian travel, and a sidewalk that would otherwise have to be cleaned on Sunday may be cleaned within six hours after sunrise on the following day
- Width a clear pathway at least five feet in width in business and commercial districts and three feet in width in residential districts
- Penalty $5.00 to $25.00 for each day offenses continue for an RS classified building, $125.00 to $300.00 for each day for any other classification, or a civil citation of $100.00 for each such violation
- If it is not done the city may clear it and charge the property
- Section Newark Code of Ordinances Sec. 26-3
- Published by City of Newark Code of Ordinances
Sec. 26-3. Removal of snow and ice from sidewalks and private property; enforcement; penalties, Code of Ordinances, City of Newark, read September 23, 2026
Smyrna
13h to 24h
a longer period than 24 hours after the snow has ceased to fall or the ice has ceased to form
It shall be unlawful for the owner of any premises in the town, in front or by the side of which shall be a sidewalk, pavement or walkway, to permit or allow snow or ice to remain thereon for a longer period than 24 hours after the snow has ceased to fall or the ice has ceased to form.
Whose duty it is, as the ordinance puts it
the owner of any premises in the town, in front or by the side of which shall be a sidewalk, pavement or walkway
What it says about ice
snow and ice run on the same 24 hour clock, and a private agreement between an owner and a tenant or management company does not move the duty off the owner
- Width a pathway at least three feet wide, or the width of the sidewalk if the sidewalk is less than three feet wide
- Penalty a civil violation punishable by a fine up to but not exceeding $1,000.00, each day a continuing violation continues being a separate offense
- If it is not done the city may clear it and charge the property
- Section Smyrna Code of Ordinances Sec. 58-107, penalty at Secs. 58-106 and 1-11
- Published by Town of Smyrna Code of Ordinances
Sec. 58-107. Abutting owners' permitting snow or ice to remain on sidewalks over 24 hours declared nuisance, Code of Ordinances, Town of Smyrna, read September 23, 2026
Wilmington
13h to 24h
within 24 hours after such snow may cease to fall or after the formation of such ice
The removal of such snow and ice shall be done within 24 hours after such snow may cease to fall or after the formation of such ice.
Whose duty it is, as the ordinance puts it
the occupant, lessee, owner or agent of the property which fronts or abuts upon any such sidewalk
What it says about ice
ice formed on a sidewalk or gutter by drainage or overflow from a property must be removed immediately after its formation by the person responsible for the overflow
- Width that one-half of the sidewalk nearest the building line, plus a pathway no less than two feet in width to the street gutter
- Penalty a fine of $1.00 per linear foot of uncleared sidewalk up to a maximum fine of $25.00 besides the cost of prosecution
- Section Wilmington City Code Ch. 42, Art. VII, Secs. 42-417 through 42-420
- Published by City of Wilmington Code of Ordinances
Article VII. Removal of Snow and Ice from Sidewalks, Code of Ordinances, City of Wilmington, read September 23, 2026

Why one Delaware answer does not exist

Milford and Wilmington are 12 hours apart

A house on one side of a city line in Delaware has twelve hours and a house on the other has a day, which is the whole reason a state level answer to this question is no answer. 23 states carry a gap like it, the widest being Maine at 68 hours.

Neither city is wrong and neither is unusual. A sidewalk ordinance is written by a council for the street outside its own window, and nothing above it in Delaware obliges one council to look at what the next one wrote. The figure that applies to a reader is the one their own city published, which is why every card above carries the city’s name before it carries a number.

A sidewalk cleared earlier in the day with fresh wind blown snow already lying back across the outer half of it, a plowed road to one side and an unbroken snow field to the other — Almost every hour count on these pages runs from the end of the snowfall rather than from its start, which is the one drafting choice the ordinances broadly share. What counts as the end of it, and what a fresh drift across a cleared walk does to the clock, is left to the wording each city chose, and that wording is quoted in full on the state pages. “Snow drifting onto a shoveled sidewalk, Ewing Township, Mercer County, New Jersey, 2024-01-20”, Famartin, CC BY-SA 4.0

What Delaware itself did

Delaware has written nothing on this

Delaware sets no statewide sidewalk clearing deadline; each city and town writes its own clock, and the five codes read here run from twelve hours of daylight to twenty four hours.

That is the national pattern rather than a Delaware 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.

No statute found, and the cities cite none

No Delaware statute was found on this

has no sidewalk clearing statute that any of the codes read here relies on

What happens if it is not done

A bill or a penalty, depending on the Delaware city

Two Delaware cities publish a rule letting the city clear the walk and put the cost on the property. That is the commoner enforcement route nationally: 102 of the 187 cities with an ordinance carry one, against 105 that publish a penalty.

Five Delaware cities print a penalty beside the rule, each as a dollar figure. Each is reproduced below in the words its own ordinance used.

Both routes are printed on the cards above in the sentence each was read from, because a penalty clause paraphrased is a different statement than the one the city made. Where a city publishes a page for reporting a walk that has not been cleared, that link is on its card too.

How Delaware 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

Delaware sidewalk snow removal questions

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

Delaware has no sidewalk clearing statute that any of the codes read here relies on. The clock is a city's instead, and five Delaware cities count in hours. The tightest is Milford at twelve hours and the loosest Wilmington at a day, a gap of twelve hours inside one state. 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. Five Delaware cities publish a count of hours, and each one below is quoted from the ordinance or the city page it was read from. A day is the commonest figure in Delaware as it is nationally: 74 of the 150 cities that count in hours land on exactly that.

Does Delaware have a state law about clearing sidewalks?

Why do two Delaware cities give different deadlines?

A house on one side of a city line in Delaware has twelve hours and a house on the other has a day, which is the whole reason a state level answer to this question is no answer. 23 states carry a gap like it, the widest being Maine at 68 hours. Milford writes: “It shall be unlawful for the owner or occupant of any premises abutting upon a sidewalk to permit or allow snow or ice to remain thereon for longer than 12 hours of daylight after it has ceased snowing, or to permit debris or other materials to accumulate at any time so that pedestrians cannot conveniently and safely pass.”

Will the city clear my sidewalk in Delaware?

Two Delaware cities publish a rule letting the city clear the walk and put the cost on the property. That is the commoner enforcement route nationally: 102 of the 187 cities with an ordinance carry one, against 105 that publish a penalty. Newark sets it out this way: “In the event the owner, tenant, or occupant of every building or lot within the city, or owner, claimant, agent, or person having same in charge or control when the same is not tenanted or occupied, or the owner of any property which is occupied by multiple businesses or multiple dwelling units, shall fail to comply with the provisions of this section, the city may clean snow and/or ice from such sidewalk or apply sand or other proper substance when the same cannot be removed.”

What is the fine for not shovelling a sidewalk in Delaware?

Five Delaware cities print a penalty beside the rule, each as a dollar figure. Each is reproduced below in the words its own ordinance used. Milford prints a fine of not less than $100 nor more than $500: “Unless otherwise indicated in the Code of the City of Milford or unless otherwise provided by the Delaware Code, violation of any chapter, article or ordinance of the City of Milford shall be punishable by a fine of not less than $100 nor more than $500.”

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

Which cities in the country give you the least time?

How current is this?

Sidewalk snow removal rules in every state

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

Delaware read September 23, 2026: the municipal code and the city published pages of the 5 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.