Estill County, KY Roof Snow Load - 15 psf
Estill County, KY roof snow load, translated
A typical heated home in Estill County is designed to carry 15 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 15 psf - higher than the 10.5 psf the ground-load formula alone would give, and the code says use the larger one.
On a roof that means 33 in. of fresh snow, 12 in. once it packs down, or 3 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.
Estill County in numbers
- Design roof snow load15 psf
- Ground snow load, ASCE 7 map15 psf
- National rank#1,510 of 2,758
- Kentucky rank#83 of 120
- Population14,002
- Annual snowfall, NOAA normal6.2 in.
- FIPS21065
Where Estill County ranks
#83 of 120 Kentucky counties by design load, top 55% of 2,758 nationally - that's Estill County's spot. That's 0.7 psf below Kentucky's own county-average design load of 15.7 psf.
FIPS 21065, population 14,002, centered near 37.6924°N 83.964°W. ASCE 7's underlying ground snow load here is 15 psf before the code's exposure and importance factors bring it to the 15 psf design figure above.
Estill County: average annual snowfall
Estill County sees about 6.2 in. of snow most winters, per the CLAY CITY 1 WNW, KY US station's 1991-2020 NOAA normal. See the density guide.
Read this before you use Estill 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. (How this figure is calculated.)