Chesterfield County, VA Roof Snow Load - 20 psf
Chesterfield County, VA roof snow load, translated
A typical heated home in Chesterfield County is designed to carry 20 pounds per square foot of snow on its roof, per ASCE 7-22. ASCE 7's low-slope-roof minimum (§7.3.4) raises the governing figure to 20 psf - higher than the 14 psf the ground-load formula alone would give, and the code says use the larger one.
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.
Chesterfield County in numbers
- Design roof snow load20 psf
- Ground snow load, ASCE 7 map20 psf
- National rank#552 of 2,758
- Virginia rank#14 of 110
- Population389,793
- Annual snowfall, NOAA normal8.3 in.
- FIPS51041
Where Chesterfield County ranks
#14 of 110 Virginia counties by design load, top 20% of 2,758 nationally - that's Chesterfield County's spot. 18.3 psf is Virginia's typical county figure - Chesterfield County beats it by 1.7 psf.
FIPS 51041, population 389,793, centered near 37.3784°N 77.5858°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.
Chesterfield County: average annual snowfall
Chesterfield County sees about 8.3 in. of snow most winters, per the AMELIA COURTHOUSE, VA US station's 1991-2020 NOAA normal. See the density guide.
Read this before you use Chesterfield 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.