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.

West Virginia Sidewalk Snow Removal: 24 Hours in Every City

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

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

Nothing

What state law sets

37 states are in the same position

24h

What its cities allow

in every city that counts in hours

3 of 4

Cities with an ordinance

1 clear it themselves and bill

September 23, 2026

Read

1 publish a penalty

The short answer

Morgantown gives a day, and West Virginia sets nothing above it

West Virginia has no sidewalk clearing statute at all. The clock is a city's instead, and two West Virginia cities count 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.

Two of the West 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.

Nothing at state level3 of 4 cities with an ordinance2 counting in hours1 clear it themselves

City by city, in each city’s own words

The 3 West Virginia cities that publish an ordinance

Two West 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 West 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.

Morgantown
13h to 24h
24 hours after a storm ends
Residents and businesses are responsible for clearing all snow from the sidewalks adjacent to their property -- they have 24 hours after a storm ends to clear sidewalks.
Whose duty it is, as the ordinance puts it
Residents and businesses
- Published by City of Morgantown Public Works
Snow Plan, City of Morgantown, WV, read September 23, 2026 Where the city takes reports
Wheeling
13h to 24h
within 24 hours of the weather event, for sidewalks within the listed commercial areas
Public Works Director Russell Jebbia said that in accordance with legislation passed by City Council in 2017, sidewalks within the following commercial areas of the City must be cleared within 24 hours of the weather event: 10th Street to 23 rd Street including Water, Main, Market and Chapline Streets in the downtown; Zane Street from the Back Channel Bridge to the Fort Henry Bridge on Wheeling Island and the 2100 and 2200 blocks of National Road in the Elm Grove area.
Whose duty it is, as the ordinance puts it
an owner or occupant
- Penalty billed at a rate of $175 per hour
- If it is not done the city may clear it and charge the property
- Published by City of Wheeling Public Works
City Officials Remind Property Owners About Snow Removal Responsibility, City of Wheeling, WV, read September 23, 2026 Where the city takes reports
Elkins
No clock
The ordinance requires the walk cleared and names no time by which.
The City of Elkins reminds business owners and residents that city code requires property owners to remove snow and ice from sidewalks in front of their properties.
Whose duty it is, as the ordinance puts it
property owners
- Published by City of Elkins Operations Department
The city states the duty but publishes no deadline on this page.
Snow Plowing in Elkins: How Does it Work? Please Read These FAQs, City of Elkins, read September 23, 2026

What West Virginia itself did

West Virginia has written nothing on this

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

That is the national pattern rather than a West 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.

Nothing at state level

No West Virginia statute was found on this

has no sidewalk clearing statute at all

What happens if it is not done

A bill or a penalty, depending on the West Virginia city

One West Virginia city publishes 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 West 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 West Virginia city read publishes no clearing ordinance

West Virginia has no state rule, and its cities are split: Morgantown gives a full day everywhere, Wheeling gives a day but only on named downtown blocks and bills $175 an hour to clear it for you, Elkins states the duty without a clock, and Bridgeport's snow program stops at the street.

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.

Bridgeport
No ordinance found
No sidewalk clearing ordinance was found for this city.
- Published by City of Bridgeport Department of Public Works
Public Works, City of Bridgeport WV, read September 23, 2026

How West 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

West Virginia sidewalk snow removal questions

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

West Virginia has no sidewalk clearing statute at all. The clock is a city's instead, and two West Virginia cities count 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. Two West 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 West Virginia as it is nationally: 74 of the 150 cities that count in hours land on exactly that.

Does West Virginia have a state law about clearing sidewalks?

Will the city clear my sidewalk in West Virginia?

One West Virginia city publishes 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. Wheeling sets it out this way: “In the event that an owner or occupant fails to keep the sidewalk free from snow and ice within a 24-hour period, the City Manager can give written notice to the property owner and then order the removal of the snow and/or ice. The owner will then be billed for the City's service to clear the walkway,”

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

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

Which cities in the country give you the least time?

How current is this?

Sidewalk snow removal rules in every state

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

West Virginia read September 23, 2026: the municipal code and the city published pages of the 4 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.