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.

Missouri Sidewalk Snow Removal: 0 to 12 Hours

Q: How wide does a cleared path have to be in Missouri?

One Missouri city sets a width, and St. Louis sets a lane five feet wide where no part of the sidewalk area is improved. 57 cities nationally publish one; the rest describe the walk rather than measure it, and the city named on each line is the one that reads the result.

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

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

0 to 12h

The range across its cities

[object Object] is the tightest

7 of 7

Cities with an ordinance

read on one day

September 23, 2026

Read

3 publish a penalty

The short answer

Missouri runs from no hours at all in St. Louis to twelve hours in Joplin

Missouri has no sidewalk clearing statute at all. The clock is a city's instead, and two Missouri cities count in hours. The tightest is St. Louis at no hours at all and the loosest Joplin at twelve hours, 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 at state level7 of 7 cities with an ordinance2 counting in hours

City by city, in each city’s own words

The 7 Missouri cities that publish an ordinance

Two Missouri cities publish 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 Missouri 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.

St. Louis
Immediately
immediately after any fall of snow
After any fall of snow, owners, managers, agents or occupiers of any premises shall cause the snow to be immediately removed from the improved area of the sidewalk in the public street adjacent to such premises, and the improved area of the sidewalk shall also be kept clear of ice at all times.
Whose duty it is, as the ordinance puts it
owners, managers, agents or occupiers of any premises
What it says about ice
the improved area of the sidewalk shall also be kept clear of ice at all times
- Width a lane five feet wide where no part of the sidewalk area is improved
- Penalty $100.00 administrative citation fine
- Section 11.18.210
- Published by City of St. Louis
11.18.210 Snow removal, St. Louis Revised Code, read September 23, 2026
Joplin
7h to 12h
within 12 hours after the snow or ice has accumulated
Any owner or occupant of a building or vacant lot fronting on any sidewalk who shall fail or neglect to clear the sidewalk in front of such building or vacant lot of snow or ice within 12 hours after the snow or ice has accumulated thereon shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor.
Whose duty it is, as the ordinance puts it
Any owner or occupant of a building or vacant lot fronting on any sidewalk
- Penalty a misdemeanor
- Section Sec. 106-9
- Published by City of Joplin
Sec. 106-9 Clearing of ice and snow from sidewalks, Joplin Code of Ordinances, read September 23, 2026
Kansas City
By the clock
within a reasonable time after cessation of a storm depositing such ice or snow
It shall be the duty of all persons owning or occupying any real property, fronting upon any street, boulevard or highway, to remove from the sidewalks in front or alongside of such property all ice and snow within a reasonable time after cessation of a storm depositing such ice or snow.
Whose duty it is, as the ordinance puts it
all persons owning or occupying any real property, fronting upon any street, boulevard or highway
- Section Sec. 64-246
- Published by City of Kansas City, Missouri
Sec. 64-246 Removal of ice or snow, Kansas City Code of Ordinances, read September 23, 2026
Columbia
No clock
The ordinance requires the walk cleared and names no time by which.
All persons are hereby required to keep the sidewalks in front of, or adjacent to, the property or premises owned or occupied by them or under their control, within the city, clear and free from rubbish, filth, refuse, fat, oil, grease, dirt, snow, ice and from any and all obstructions and dangerous agencies of every kind and description whatsoever; and any person failing to observe the provisions of this section shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor.
Whose duty it is, as the ordinance puts it
All persons
- Penalty a misdemeanor
- Section Sec. 24-12
- Published by City of Columbia
Sec. 24-12 Cleaning sidewalks, Columbia Code of Ordinances, read September 23, 2026
Independence
No clock
The ordinance requires the walk cleared and names no time by which.
It shall be the duty of all persons owning or occupying any property fronting upon any street to keep the right-of-way area, including sidewalk, parkway between the sidewalk and street, curbing, or guttering in front and alongside such property and on the same side of the street in good order and to clean the same and remove from any such sidewalk, parkway between the sidewalk and street, curbing, and guttering all ice, snow, earth, or other substances that obstruct or render the same dangerous.
Whose duty it is, as the ordinance puts it
all persons owning or occupying any property fronting upon any street
- Section Sec. 17.06.002
- Published by Independence Department of Municipal Services
Sec. 17.06.002 Maintenance, Independence Code of Ordinances, read September 23, 2026
Liberty
No clock
The ordinance requires the walk cleared and names no time by which.
It shall be the duty of all persons owning or occupying any real property, fronting upon any street to keep the sidewalks and curbing and guttering in front and alongside of such property and on the same side of the street, in good repair and order and clean the same and remove from any such sidewalk and curbing all ice, snow, earth or other substance that in anywise obstructs or renders the same dangerous, inconvenient or annoying to any person.
Whose duty it is, as the ordinance puts it
all persons owning or occupying any real property, fronting upon any street
- Section Sec. 25-4
- Published by City of Liberty
Sec. 25-4 Removal of ice, snow, etc., from sidewalks, etc., Liberty Code of Ordinances, read September 23, 2026
St. Joseph
No clock
The ordinance requires the walk cleared and names no time by which.
It shall be the duty of all persons owning or occupying any real property fronting upon any street, parkway, boulevard or public place to: (1) Keep the sidewalk, curbing and guttering in front of and alongside of the property in good order and free of obstructions; (2) Clean the sidewalk, curb and gutter; and (3) Remove from any such sidewalk, curbing or guttering all ice, snow, earth or other substance that in any way obstructs or renders the sidewalk, curb and gutter dangerous, inconvenient or annoying to any person.
Whose duty it is, as the ordinance puts it
all persons owning or occupying any real property fronting upon any street, parkway, boulevard or public place
- Section Sec. 25-78
- Published by City of St. Joseph
Sec. 25-78 Removal of ice, snow, dirt and litter, St. Joseph Code of Ordinances, read September 23, 2026

Why one Missouri answer does not exist

St. Louis and Joplin are 12 hours apart

A house on one side of a city line in Missouri has no hours at all and a house on the other has twelve hours, 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 Missouri 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 Missouri itself did

Missouri has written nothing on this

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

That is the national pattern rather than a Missouri 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 Missouri statute was found on this

has no sidewalk clearing statute at all

What happens if it is not done

What Missouri cities publish as a penalty

Three Missouri cities print a penalty beside the rule, one of them as a dollar figure and the rest as the class of offence the ordinance creates. 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 Missouri 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

Missouri sidewalk snow removal questions

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

Missouri has no sidewalk clearing statute at all. The clock is a city's instead, and two Missouri cities count in hours. The tightest is St. Louis at no hours at all and the loosest Joplin at twelve hours, 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. Two Missouri cities publish 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 Missouri figures is twelve hours, against a day nationally.

Does Missouri have a state law about clearing sidewalks?

Why do two Missouri cities give different deadlines?

A house on one side of a city line in Missouri has no hours at all and a house on the other has twelve hours, 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. St. Louis writes: “After any fall of snow, owners, managers, agents or occupiers of any premises shall cause the snow to be immediately removed from the improved area of the sidewalk in the public street adjacent to such premises, and the improved area of the sidewalk shall also be kept clear of ice at all times.”

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

How wide does a cleared path have to be in Missouri?

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

Which cities in the country give you the least time?

How current is this?

Sidewalk snow removal rules in every state

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

Missouri read September 23, 2026: the municipal code and the city published pages of the 7 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.