Florida

Statewide summary — confirm with your building department before designing

Snow load audit, August 2026. Ground snow load range set to 0 psf minimum and 0 psf maximum. Florida is the one state in this region whose adopted code speaks to snow directly, and what it says is that snow does not apply. The Florida Building Code is state authored, so its own amendment text may be quoted: the Florida Specific Requirements Supplement to the Residential volume reads "R301.2.3 Snow loads. Reserved." and "Figure R301.2(5) Reserved." The Florida Building Commission's Analysis of Changes for the 8th Edition (2023) confirms that this is still the position in the code now in force. For the Residential volume it records Figure R301.2(5), Ground Snow Loads, Pg, for the United States as "Figure deleted", records the snow loads section as "Section has been deleted and shown as Reserved. Seismic and snow provisions have deleted throughout the FBC", and strips snow references out of R301.1, R301.6, R324.4.1.1 and the footing, SIP, deck and concrete wall tables. The Building volume goes the same way: Section 1608 Snow Loads and Section 1603.1.3 Roof snow load data are both recorded as "Section deleted and shown as Reserved." No ground snow load is therefore assigned anywhere in Florida, at any elevation, under either volume. The 0 and 0 pair records that the adopted code imposes no snow load; it is not a map reading that happened to return zero, it is a code that declines to have the conversation. None of the four existing values was changed. Ground snow load 0 psf, frost depth 0 inches and seismic design category A all remain consistent with a code that has deleted its snow and its seismic provisions outright. The wind speed of 180 mph remains a coastal high water mark rather than a typical Florida requirement, as the earlier note explains. No value on this row was changed by this audit, but the wind speed here follows a different convention from every other state in this table. The 180 mph figure is an ASCE 7 ultimate design wind speed at the high end of the Florida range, in the neighborhood of the High Velocity Hurricane Zone in Miami-Dade and Broward and of the Florida Keys. It is not a typical Florida value: inland and panhandle counties map substantially lower for Risk Category II, and every other state row in this table carries an inland or typical speed rather than a coastal maximum. Designing to 180 mph inland is safe but costly, and the number should not be read as the requirement for Orlando or Tallahassee. Seismic design category A is correct and well supported; Miami, Tampa, Jacksonville, Pensacola and Tallahassee all have short period design accelerations below 0.12 g for Site Class D. Ground snow load of 0 psf and frost depth of 0 inches are correct, though the IRC still requires a minimum footing depth of 12 inches below undisturbed ground. Termite risk of very heavy is correct and Florida lies entirely within the top band of the IRC termite map. Winter design temperature of 35 F reflects central and south Florida; north Florida and the panhandle design to colder values.