Charlottesville city, VA Roof Snow Load - 21 psf
Charlottesville city, VA roof snow load, translated
A typical heated home in Charlottesville city is designed to carry 21 pounds per square foot of snow on its roof, per ASCE 7-22.
On a roof that means 46.2 in. of fresh snow, 16.8 in. once it packs down, or 4.2 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.
Charlottesville city, VA: quick facts
- Design roof snow load21 psf
- Ground snow load, ASCE 7 map30 psf
- National rank#437 of 2,758
- Virginia rank#5 of 110
- Population44,767
- Annual snowfall, NOAA normal15.6 in.
- FIPS51540
Where Charlottesville city ranks
#5 of 110 Virginia counties by design load, top 16% of 2,758 nationally - that's Charlottesville city's spot. That's 2.7 psf above Virginia's own county-average design load of 18.3 psf.
FIPS 51540, population 44,767, centered near 38.0377°N 78.4854°W. ASCE 7's underlying ground snow load here is 30 psf before the code's exposure and importance factors bring it to the 21 psf design figure above.
Charlottesville city: average annual snowfall
Charlottesville city sees about 15.6 in. of snow most winters, per the MONTICELLO, VA US station's 1991-2020 NOAA normal. See the density guide.
Read this before you use Charlottesville city'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.)