SnowLoadCheck

Richland County, WI Roof Snow Load - 24.5 psf

Richland County, WI roof snow load, translated

Moderate
24.5 psf

A typical heated home in Richland County is designed to carry 24.5 pounds per square foot of snow on its roof, per ASCE 7-22.

On a roof that means 53.9 in. of fresh snow, 19.6 in. once it packs down, or 4.9 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.

Richland County, WI: quick facts

Where Richland County ranks

#53 of 72 Wisconsin counties by design load, top 12% of 2,758 nationally - that's Richland County's spot. That's 6.4 psf below Wisconsin's own county-average design load of 30.9 psf.

FIPS 55103, population 17,123, centered near 43.3762°N 90.4357°W. ASCE 7's underlying ground snow load here is 35 psf before the code's exposure and importance factors bring it to the 24.5 psf design figure above.

Richland County: average annual snowfall

Richland County sees about 40.4 in. of snow most winters, per the RICHLAND CTR, WI US station's 1991-2020 NOAA normal. See the density guide.

Read this before you use Richland 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.)