Colorado Springs, CO Frost Depth & Snow Load: Ground Snow Load (2026)

Colorado Springs does not write its own design criteria. It adopts the Pikes Peak Regional Building Code, issued by the Pikes Peak Regional Building Department, which serves the city and surrounding jurisdictions from one code. That code bands the ground snow load by elevation rather than assigning the city a single figure, which is the honest engineering answer for a jurisdiction whose grade plane climbs into the foothills. Below 7,000 feet the ground snow load is 43 psf uniform; at or above 7,000 feet it is 57 psf uniform. The flat roof snow load is banded on the same threshold. Design factors are held constant across both bands, with an exposure factor of 1.0 and a thermal factor of 1.0. Anyone quoting a single ground snow load for Colorado Springs is either describing only the lower band or has flattened a distinction the code makes deliberately: the elevation of the grade plane is what decides which figure applies.