SnowLoadCheck

Shelby County, KY Roof Snow Load - 15 psf

Shelby County, KY roof snow load, translated

Moderate
15 psf

A typical heated home in Shelby County is designed to carry 15 pounds per square foot of snow on its roof, per ASCE 7-22. The physics-based figure alone would be 10.5 psf, but ASCE 7's own low-slope minimum (§7.3.4) sets a floor of 15 psf for flat and low-pitch roofs here, which is the number that actually governs.

On a roof that means 33 in. of fresh snow, 12 in. once it packs down, or 3 in. of solid ice - three very different piles for the same load. Modern-code homes carry a load like this without issue; an older addition, a carport, or any flat-roofed section is where it is worth checking first.

Shelby County at a glance

Where Shelby County ranks

#32 of 120 Kentucky counties by design load, top 50% of 2,758 nationally - that's Shelby County's spot. 15.7 psf is Kentucky's typical county figure - Shelby County comes in 0.7 psf under it.

FIPS 21211, population 50,124, centered near 38.239°N 85.2282°W. ASCE 7's underlying ground snow load here is 15 psf before the code's exposure and importance factors bring it to the 15 psf design figure above.

Shelby County: average annual snowfall

Shelby County sees about 15.1 in. of snow most winters, per the LOUISVILLE WFO, KY US station's 1991-2020 NOAA normal. See the density guide.

Read this before you use Shelby 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.)