Adams County, IL Roof Snow Load - 20 psf
Adams County, IL roof snow load, translated
A typical heated home in Adams County is designed to carry 20 pounds per square foot of snow on its roof, per ASCE 7-22. Flat and low-pitch roofs in Adams County are actually governed by ASCE 7's §7.3.4 minimum of 20 psf, not the 14 psf the ground-load formula alone would produce.
On a roof that means 44 in. of fresh snow, 16 in. once it packs down, or 4 in. of solid ice - three very different piles for the same load. Modern-code homes carry a load like this without issue; an older addition, a carport, or any flat-roofed section is where it is worth checking first.
Adams County in numbers
- Design roof snow load20 psf
- Ground snow load, ASCE 7 map20 psf
- National rank#700 of 2,758
- Illinois rank#22 of 102
- Population64,109
- Annual snowfall, NOAA normal17 in.
- FIPS17001
Where Adams County ranks
#22 of 102 Illinois counties by design load, top 25% of 2,758 nationally - that's Adams County's spot. 19.3 psf is Illinois's typical county figure - Adams County beats it by 0.7 psf.
FIPS 17001, population 64,109, centered near 39.9861°N 91.195°W. ASCE 7's underlying ground snow load here is 20 psf before the code's exposure and importance factors bring it to the 20 psf design figure above.
Adams County: average annual snowfall
Adams County sees about 17 in. of snow most winters, per the PAYSON, IL US station's 1991-2020 NOAA normal. See the density guide.
Read this before you use Adams County's figure
The figure above assumes the case ASCE 7-22 treats as typical: a heated, ordinary-occupancy home on a partially exposed site. Change any of those - exposure, heating, roof pitch, occupancy category - and the real design number moves.
A building permit needs the number at your exact address, not the county average - the free ASCE 7 Hazard Tool returns that from your coordinates in about a minute and produces a PDF a plan reviewer will accept. See the methodology guide.