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.

Virginia Sidewalk Snow Removal: 3 to 24 Hours

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

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

A rule, not a clock

What state law sets

Code of Virginia § 15.2-2025

3 to 24h

The range across its cities

[object Object] is the tightest

6 of 7

Cities with an ordinance

3 clear it themselves and bill

September 23, 2026

Read

1 publish a penalty

The short answer

Virginia runs from three hours in Roanoke to a day in Winchester

Virginia has a statute that does one thing only, which is to let a local government pass a rule of its own. The clock is a city's instead, and six Virginia cities count in hours. The tightest is Roanoke at three hours and the loosest Winchester at a day, a gap of 21 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.

Three of the Virginia cities below publish somewhere to report a walk that has not been cleared, linked on its own line. The city that publishes the rule is the city that answers questions about it.

A city may6 of 7 cities with an ordinance6 counting in hours3 clear it themselves

City by city, in each city’s own words

The 6 Virginia cities that publish an ordinance

Six Virginia 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 Virginia 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.

Roanoke
Up to 6h
within three hours after a snowfall ends or, if snow falls overnight, by 9 a.m. the next morning
Residents are also reminded that they are responsible for clearing snow from sidewalks adjoining their property within three hours after a snowfall ends or, if snow falls overnight, by 9 a.m. the next morning.
Whose duty it is, as the ordinance puts it
Residents
- Published by City of Roanoke
Snow Management, Mitigation, and Removal Information, City of Roanoke, VA, read September 23, 2026
Richmond
Up to 6h
within 6 hours of snow stopping or by 11 a.m. the next day if snow falls through the night
City Code requires sidewalks to be cleared within 6 hours of snow stopping or by 11 a.m. the next day if snow falls through the night.
Whose duty it is, as the ordinance puts it
the property owner or occupants
- Published by City of Richmond Department of Public Works
Snow Removal, City of Richmond, read September 23, 2026
Alexandria
13h to 24h
24 hours after snowfall stops for a Level 1 storm, 48 hours for Level 2, 72 hours for Level 3
Property owners and tenants are responsible for clearing the snow and ice from adjacent City sidewalks within 24 hours after snowfall stops (Level 1), 48 hours after snowfall stops (Level 2), or 72 hours after snowfall stops (Level 3).
Whose duty it is, as the ordinance puts it
Property owners and tenants
- Penalty $50
- If it is not done the city may clear it and charge the property
- Section City Code Section 5-2-21
- Published by City of Alexandria Department of Transportation and Environmental Services
Snow and Ice Control, City of Alexandria, VA, read September 23, 2026 Where the city takes reports
Charlottesville
13h to 24h
within 24 hours of the declared end of snowfall
Sidewalks must be cleared within 24 hours of the declared end of snowfall, meaning all sidewalks must be cleared by 7:30 p.m. on Monday, January 26, 2026.
Whose duty it is, as the ordinance puts it
property owners and occupants of properties that abut or front paved sidewalks
- Section City Code Section 28-25
- Published by City of Charlottesville
City Declares Official End of Snowfall; Sidewalk Clearing Required Within 24 Hours, City of Charlottesville, VA, read September 23, 2026 Where the city takes reports
Harrisonburg
13h to 24h
within 24 hours if snowfall is six inches or less, within 36 hours if snowfall is greater than six inches
Within 24 hours if snowfall is six inches or less. Within 36 hours if snowfall is greater than six inches.
Whose duty it is, as the ordinance puts it
the occupant or property owner
- If it is not done the city may clear it and charge the property
- Section City Code Section 6-1-15
- Published by City of Harrisonburg Department of Public Works
Snow and Ice, City of Harrisonburg, VA, read September 23, 2026
Winchester
13h to 24h
within 24 hours after the snow or sleet has ceased to fall when the total snow accumulation is six inches or less and within 48 hours when the snow accumulation is greater than six inches
The owner or any person responsible for the care of any building or lot of land abutting on any curbed or paved sidewalk within the corporate limits of the city shall remove the snow or sleet from such sidewalk within 24 hours after the snow or sleet has ceased to fall when the total snow accumulation is six inches or less and within 48 hours after the snow or sleet has ceased to fall when the snow accumulation is greater than six inches.
Whose duty it is, as the ordinance puts it
The owner or any person responsible for the care of any building or lot of land abutting on any curbed or paved sidewalk
What it says about ice
In cases of sleet or ice that cannot be removed without injury to the pavement of the sidewalk, the sidewalk shall be covered within 24 hours after the ice or sleet has ceased to fall with sawdust, ashes or some other material which will render the sidewalk safe for travel.
- If it is not done the city may clear it and charge the property
- Section Sec. 26-15. Duty of property owners or occupants to remove snow and ice from sidewalks.
- Published by City of Winchester Zoning and Inspections Department
City of Winchester Snow Ordinances, City of Winchester, VA, read September 23, 2026

Why one Virginia answer does not exist

Roanoke and Winchester are 21 hours apart

A house on one side of a city line in Virginia has three 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 Virginia 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 Virginia itself did

The Virginia statute, and what it does not do

State law does not set a shovelling deadline for anyone. It only lets certain Northern Virginia counties pass their own sidewalk clearing ordinance, and caps the civil penalty at $100.

That is the national pattern rather than a Virginia 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.

Permission for a local government to write one

Code of Virginia § 15.2-2025

Virginia Law Portal, Virginia General Assembly Division of Legislative Automated Systems

has a statute that does one thing only, which is to let a local government pass a rule of its own

Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection A of § 15.2-2000, any county in Northern Virginia Planning District 8, or any county outside Planning District 8 that has adopted the county executive form of government, may provide by ordinance reasonable criteria and requirements for the removal of accumulations of snow and ice from public sidewalks, by the owner or other person in charge of any occupied property. Such ordinance shall include reasonable time frames for compliance and reasonable exceptions for individuals with disabilities, elderly individuals, and those otherwise physically incapable of meeting the criteria and requirements for such removal. Civil penalties not to exceed $100 may be imposed for violation of such ordinance.

Virginia Law Portal, Virginia General Assembly Division of Legislative Automated Systems, read September 23, 2026. Read it at the source

What happens if it is not done

A bill or a penalty, depending on the Virginia city

Three Virginia 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.

One Virginia city prints 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.

Where nothing was found

One Virginia city read publishes no clearing ordinance

Virginia leaves this entirely to cities, and the deadlines they set are wildly different: three hours in Roanoke, six in Richmond, a full day in Charlottesville, Alexandria, Harrisonburg and Winchester, while Virginia Beach publishes no sidewalk rule at all.

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.

Virginia Beach
No ordinance found
No sidewalk clearing ordinance was found for this city.
- Published by City of Virginia Beach Public Works
Maintenance, City of Virginia Beach Public Works, read September 23, 2026 Where the city takes reports

How Virginia 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

Virginia sidewalk snow removal questions

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

Virginia has a statute that does one thing only, which is to let a local government pass a rule of its own. The clock is a city's instead, and six Virginia cities count in hours. The tightest is Roanoke at three hours and the loosest Winchester at a day, a gap of 21 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. Six Virginia 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 Virginia as it is nationally: 74 of the 150 cities that count in hours land on exactly that.

Does Virginia have a state law about clearing sidewalks?

State law does not set a shovelling deadline for anyone. It only lets certain Northern Virginia counties pass their own sidewalk clearing ordinance, and caps the civil penalty at $100. The section is Code of Virginia § 15.2-2025, published by Virginia Law Portal, Virginia General Assembly Division of Legislative Automated Systems. It reads: “Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection A of § 15.2-2000, any county in Northern Virginia Planning District 8, or any county outside Planning District 8 that has adopted the county executive form of government, may provide by ordinance reasonable criteria and requirements for the removal of accumulations of snow and ice from public sidewalks, by the owner or other person in charge of any occupied property. Such ordinance shall include reasonable time frames for compliance and reasonable exceptions for individuals with disabilities, elderly individuals, and those otherwise physically incapable of meeting the criteria and requirements for such removal. Civil penalties not to exceed $100 may be imposed for violation of such ordinance.”

Why do two Virginia cities give different deadlines?

A house on one side of a city line in Virginia has three 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. Roanoke writes: “Residents are also reminded that they are responsible for clearing snow from sidewalks adjoining their property within three hours after a snowfall ends or, if snow falls overnight, by 9 a.m. the next morning.”

Will the city clear my sidewalk in Virginia?

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

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

Which cities in the country give you the least time?

How current is this?

Sidewalk snow removal rules in every state

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

Virginia read September 23, 2026: the municipal code and the city published pages of the 7 cities above, and Code of Virginia § 15.2-2025. 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.