Petersburg city, VA Roof Snow Load - 20 psf
Petersburg city, VA roof snow load, translated
A typical heated home in Petersburg city is designed to carry 20 pounds per square foot of snow on its roof, per ASCE 7-22. The physics-based figure alone would be 14 psf, but ASCE 7's own low-slope minimum (§7.3.4) sets a floor of 20 psf for flat and low-pitch roofs here, which is the number that actually governs.
On a roof that means 44 in. of fresh snow, 16 in. once it packs down, or 4 in. of solid ice - three very different piles for the same load. This is a meaningful design load - most modern-code homes handle it fine, though an addition, a carport or a flat-roofed section can be a weak spot.
Petersburg city at a glance
- Design roof snow load20 psf
- Ground snow load, ASCE 7 map20 psf
- National rank#828 of 2,758
- Virginia rank#35 of 110
- Population34,058
- Annual snowfall, NOAA normal6.4 in.
- FIPS51730
Where Petersburg city ranks
#35 of 110 Virginia counties by design load, top 30% of 2,758 nationally - that's Petersburg city's spot. That's 1.7 psf above Virginia's own county-average design load of 18.3 psf.
FIPS 51730, population 34,058, centered near 37.2047°N 77.3924°W. ASCE 7's underlying ground snow load here is 20 psf before the code's exposure and importance factors bring it to the 20 psf design figure above.
Petersburg city: average annual snowfall
Petersburg city sees about 6.4 in. of snow most winters, per the WAKEFIELD 1NW, VA US station's 1991-2020 NOAA normal. That station is far enough away (26.1 mi) that local snowfall - especially at a different elevation or near a lake - can run noticeably higher or lower than this figure. See the density guide.
Read this before you use Petersburg city'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.)