Sawyer County, WI Roof Snow Load - 42 psf
Sawyer County, WI roof snow load, translated
A typical heated home in Sawyer 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. A serious structural load. Homes built before modern snow-load provisions, or with low-slope/flat roof sections, are the ones most worth having checked.
Sawyer County, WI: quick facts
- Design roof snow load42 psf
- Ground snow load, ASCE 7 map60 psf
- National rank#56 of 2,758
- Wisconsin rank#8 of 72
- Population18,835
- Annual snowfall, NOAA normal57.3 in.
- FIPS55113
Where Sawyer County ranks
#8 of 72 Wisconsin counties by design load, top 2% of 2,758 nationally - that's Sawyer County's spot. Wisconsin counties average 30.9 psf; Sawyer County runs 11.1 psf higher than that.
FIPS 55113, population 18,835, centered near 45.865°N 91.1471°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.
Sawyer County: average annual snowfall
Sawyer County sees about 57.3 in. of snow most winters, per the WINTER, WI US station's 1991-2020 NOAA normal. See the density guide.
Read this before you use Sawyer 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.)