SnowLoadCheck

Blackford County, IN Roof Snow Load - 20 psf

Blackford County, IN roof snow load, translated

Moderate
20 psf

A typical heated home in Blackford County is designed to carry 20 pounds per square foot of snow on its roof, per ASCE 7-22. The physics-based figure alone would be 14 psf, but ASCE 7's own low-slope minimum (§7.3.4) sets a floor of 20 psf for flat and low-pitch roofs here, which is the number that actually governs.

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. This is a meaningful design load - most modern-code homes handle it fine, though an addition, a carport or a flat-roofed section can be a weak spot.

Blackford County at a glance

Where Blackford County ranks

#70 of 89 Indiana counties by design load, top 39% of 2,758 nationally - that's Blackford County's spot. That's 0.7 psf above Indiana's own county-average design load of 19.3 psf.

FIPS 18009, population 11,816, centered near 40.4727°N 85.3237°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.

Blackford County: average annual snowfall

Blackford County sees about 32.2 in. of snow most winters, per the HARTFORD CITY 4 ESE, IN US station's 1991-2020 NOAA normal. See the density guide.

Read this before you use Blackford 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. (How this figure is calculated.)