McLeod County, MN Roof Snow Load - 35 psf
McLeod County, MN roof snow load, translated
A typical heated home in McLeod County is designed to carry 35 pounds per square foot of snow on its roof, per ASCE 7-22.
On a roof that means 77 in. of fresh snow, 28 in. once it packs down, or 7 in. of solid ice - three very different piles for the same load. A load this size is a serious structural matter; pre-modern-code homes and low-slope or flat-roofed sections are the ones most worth an inspection.
McLeod County in numbers
- Design roof snow load35 psf
- Ground snow load, ASCE 7 map50 psf
- National rank#138 of 2,758
- Minnesota rank#53 of 87
- Population36,780
- Annual snowfall, NOAA normal50 in.
- FIPS27085
Where McLeod County ranks
#53 of 87 Minnesota counties by design load, top 5% of 2,758 nationally - that's McLeod County's spot. 37.4 psf is Minnesota's typical county figure - McLeod County comes in 2.4 psf under it.
FIPS 27085, population 36,780, centered near 44.8217°N 94.2723°W. ASCE 7's underlying ground snow load here is 50 psf before the code's exposure and importance factors bring it to the 35 psf design figure above.
McLeod County: average annual snowfall
McLeod County sees about 50 in. of snow most winters, per the BROWNTON WWTP, MN US station's 1991-2020 NOAA normal. See the density guide.
Read this before you use McLeod 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.)