SnowLoadCheck

Charlotte County, VA Roof Snow Load - 20 psf

Charlotte County, VA roof snow load, translated

Moderate
20 psf

A typical heated home in Charlotte 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 Charlotte 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. 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.

Snow on Charlotte County's roofs right now?

in. of

Charlotte County, VA: quick facts

Where Charlotte County ranks

#71 of 110 Virginia counties by design load, top 39% of 2,758 nationally - that's Charlotte County's spot. That's 1.7 psf above Virginia's own county-average design load of 18.3 psf.

FIPS 51037, population 11,258, centered near 37.009°N 78.6586°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.

Charlotte County: average annual snowfall

Charlotte County sees about 5 in. of snow most winters, per the CHASE CITY, VA US station's 1991-2020 NOAA normal. See the density guide.

Read this before you use Charlotte 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. Details: the calculation guide.