Sioux County, NE Roof Snow Load - 15 psf
Sioux County, NE roof snow load, translated
A typical heated home in Sioux 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.
Sioux County in numbers
- Design roof snow load15 psf
- Ground snow load, ASCE 7 map15 psf
- National rank#1,646 of 2,758
- Nebraska rank#93 of 93
- Population1,099
- Annual snowfall, NOAA normal53.3 in.
- FIPS31165
Where Sioux County ranks
#93 of 93 Nebraska counties by design load, top 60% of 2,758 nationally - that's Sioux County's spot. That's 5.2 psf below Nebraska's own county-average design load of 20.2 psf.
FIPS 31165, population 1,099, centered near 42.4707°N 103.7322°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.
Sioux County: average annual snowfall
Sioux County sees about 53.3 in. of snow most winters, per the PLAINSVIEW RCH, NE US station's 1991-2020 NOAA normal. See the density guide.
Read this before you use Sioux 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. See the methodology guide.