Ellis County, KS Roof Snow Load - 20 psf
Ellis County, KS roof snow load, translated
A typical heated home in Ellis County is designed to carry 20 pounds per square foot of snow on its roof, per ASCE 7-22. 17.5 psf is what the ground-load formula alone gives; Ellis County's 20 psf low-slope minimum (§7.3.4) beats it, so that figure is the one that governs on flat and low-pitch roofs.
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. 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.
Ellis County in numbers
- Design roof snow load20 psf
- Ground snow load, ASCE 7 map25 psf
- National rank#868 of 2,758
- Kansas rank#13 of 105
- Population29,007
- Annual snowfall, NOAA normal12.9 in.
- FIPS20051
Where Ellis County ranks
#13 of 105 Kansas counties by design load, top 31% of 2,758 nationally - that's Ellis County's spot. That's 1.8 psf above Kansas's own county-average design load of 18.2 psf.
FIPS 20051, population 29,007, centered near 38.9146°N 99.3173°W. ASCE 7's underlying ground snow load here is 25 psf before the code's exposure and importance factors bring it to the 20 psf design figure above.
Ellis County: average annual snowfall
Ellis County sees about 12.9 in. of snow most winters, per the HAYS, KS US station's 1991-2020 NOAA normal. See the density guide.
Read this before you use Ellis 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.