Kossuth County, IA Roof Snow Load - 28 psf
Kossuth County, IA roof snow load, translated
A typical heated home in Kossuth County is designed to carry 28 pounds per square foot of snow on its roof, per ASCE 7-22.
On a roof that means 61.6 in. of fresh snow, 22.4 in. once it packs down, or 5.6 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.
Kossuth County at a glance
- Design roof snow load28 psf
- Ground snow load, ASCE 7 map40 psf
- National rank#258 of 2,758
- Iowa rank#2 of 99
- Population14,408
- Annual snowfall, NOAA normal39.7 in.
- FIPS19109
Where Kossuth County ranks
#2 of 99 Iowa counties by design load, top 9% of 2,758 nationally - that's Kossuth County's spot. That's 6.3 psf above Iowa's own county-average design load of 21.7 psf.
FIPS 19109, population 14,408, centered near 43.2123°N 94.214°W. ASCE 7's underlying ground snow load here is 40 psf before the code's exposure and importance factors bring it to the 28 psf design figure above.
Kossuth County: average annual snowfall
Kossuth County sees about 39.7 in. of snow most winters, per the SWEA CITY 5N, IA US station's 1991-2020 NOAA normal. See the density guide.
Read this before you use Kossuth 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.)