SnowLoadCheck

Day County, SD Roof Snow Load - 35 psf

Day County, SD roof snow load, translated

Heavy
35 psf

A typical heated home in Day County is designed to carry 35 pounds per square foot of snow on its roof, per ASCE 7-22.

On a roof that means 77 in. of fresh snow, 28 in. once it packs down, or 7 in. of solid ice - three very different piles for the same load. A load this size is a serious structural matter; pre-modern-code homes and low-slope or flat-roofed sections are the ones most worth an inspection.

Day County in numbers

Where Day County ranks

#8 of 65 South Dakota counties by design load, top 7% of 2,758 nationally - that's Day County's spot. South Dakota counties average 28.2 psf; Day County runs 6.8 psf higher than that.

FIPS 46037, population 5,408, centered near 45.3552°N 97.5814°W. ASCE 7's underlying ground snow load here is 50 psf before the code's exposure and importance factors bring it to the 35 psf design figure above.

Day County: average annual snowfall

Day County sees about 42.8 in. of snow most winters, per the WEBSTER, SD US station's 1991-2020 NOAA normal. See the density guide.

Read this before you use Day 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.