SnowLoadCheck

Greensville County, VA Roof Snow Load - 15 psf

Greensville County, VA roof snow load, translated

Moderate
15 psf

A typical heated home in Greensville County is designed to carry 15 pounds per square foot of snow on its roof, per ASCE 7-22. §7.3.4's low-slope minimum of 15 psf is what actually governs on a flat or low-pitch roof here - higher than the 10.5 psf the base ground-load formula gives.

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.

Greensville County, VA: quick facts

Where Greensville County ranks

#95 of 110 Virginia counties by design load, top 56% of 2,758 nationally - that's Greensville County's spot. That's 3.3 psf below Virginia's own county-average design load of 18.3 psf.

FIPS 51081, population 11,150, centered near 36.6803°N 77.5603°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.

Greensville County: average annual snowfall

Greensville County sees about 1.4 in. of snow most winters, per the EMPORIA 1 WNW, VA US station's 1991-2020 NOAA normal. See the density guide.

Read this before you use Greensville 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.)