Lake of the Woods County, MN Roof Snow Load - 42 psf
Lake of the Woods County, MN roof snow load, translated
A typical heated home in Lake of the Woods County is designed to carry 42 pounds per square foot of snow on its roof, per ASCE 7-22.
On a roof that means 92.4 in. of fresh snow, 33.6 in. once it packs down, or 8.4 in. of solid ice - three very different piles for the same load. This is a serious structural load - older homes built before modern snow-load provisions, or ones with low-slope or flat roof sections, are worth having checked.
Lake of the Woods County in numbers
- Design roof snow load42 psf
- Ground snow load, ASCE 7 map60 psf
- National rank#83 of 2,758
- Minnesota rank#29 of 87
- Population3,797
- Annual snowfall, NOAA normal45.9 in.
- FIPS27077
Where Lake of the Woods County ranks
#29 of 87 Minnesota counties by design load, top 3% of 2,758 nationally - that's Lake of the Woods County's spot. Minnesota counties average 37.4 psf; Lake of the Woods County runs 4.6 psf higher than that.
FIPS 27077, population 3,797, centered near 48.7681°N 94.9046°W. ASCE 7's underlying ground snow load here is 60 psf before the code's exposure and importance factors bring it to the 42 psf design figure above.
Lake of the Woods County: average annual snowfall
Lake of the Woods County sees about 45.9 in. of snow most winters, per the CAMP NORRIS DNR, MN US station's 1991-2020 NOAA normal. See the density guide.
Read this before you use Lake of the Woods 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.