Rhode Island Ground Snow Load by City and Town

Rhode Island publishes its snow loads centrally rather than leaving them to each building official. The Rhode Island Snow Load, Wind Speed and Frost Depth Table lists all 39 municipalities with a ground snow load, a flat roof snow load, a basic wind speed by risk category, and a frost depth. Ground snow loads take four values: 25 psf for New Shoreham alone, 30 psf for twenty-one municipalities including Providence, Warwick, Cranston and Newport, 35 psf for nine including Pawtucket, and 40 psf for eight including Woonsocket. The pattern runs inland and north, the coastal and island communities carry the lightest loads and the towns along the Massachusetts border the heaviest. One important distinction: the snow and frost columns are Rhode Island's own numbers, but the wind speed columns in the same table are explicitly headed as reproductions of national figures, so only the snow and frost values represent state-authored requirements.

Ground snow load is a design input enforced at plan review rather than a citable offence. Drawings submitted with a building permit must show the structure designed for the value listed for that municipality. The table also flags wind-borne debris regions with a marker for locations greater than 130 mph within a mile of the mean high coastal water line, which triggers additional requirements on the same set of drawings.