Clay County, IA Roof Snow Load - 24.5 psf
Clay County, IA roof snow load, translated
A typical heated home in Clay County is designed to carry 24.5 pounds per square foot of snow on its roof, per ASCE 7-22.
On a roof that means 53.9 in. of fresh snow, 19.6 in. once it packs down, or 4.9 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.
Clay County in numbers
- Design roof snow load24.5 psf
- Ground snow load, ASCE 7 map35 psf
- National rank#345 of 2,758
- Iowa rank#15 of 99
- Population16,474
- Annual snowfall, NOAA normal43.3 in.
- FIPS19041
Where Clay County ranks
#15 of 99 Iowa counties by design load, top 13% of 2,758 nationally - that's Clay County's spot. That's 2.8 psf above Iowa's own county-average design load of 21.7 psf.
FIPS 19041, population 16,474, centered near 43.0812°N 95.1499°W. ASCE 7's underlying ground snow load here is 35 psf before the code's exposure and importance factors bring it to the 24.5 psf design figure above.
Clay County: average annual snowfall
Clay County sees about 43.3 in. of snow most winters, per the SPENCER 1 N, IA US station's 1991-2020 NOAA normal. See the density guide.
Read this before you use Clay 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.