Stearns County, MN Roof Snow Load - 35 psf
Stearns County, MN roof snow load, translated
A typical heated home in Stearns County is designed to carry 35 pounds per square foot of snow on its roof, per ASCE 7-22.
On a roof that means 77 in. of fresh snow, 28 in. once it packs down, or 7 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.
Stearns County in numbers
- Design roof snow load35 psf
- Ground snow load, ASCE 7 map50 psf
- National rank#101 of 2,758
- Minnesota rank#36 of 87
- Population163,997
- Annual snowfall, NOAA normal57.4 in.
- FIPS27145
Where Stearns County ranks
#36 of 87 Minnesota counties by design load, top 4% of 2,758 nationally - that's Stearns County's spot. Minnesota counties average 37.4 psf; Stearns County runs 2.4 psf lower than that.
FIPS 27145, population 163,997, centered near 45.5552°N 94.6105°W. ASCE 7's underlying ground snow load here is 50 psf before the code's exposure and importance factors bring it to the 35 psf design figure above.
Stearns County: average annual snowfall
Stearns County sees about 57.4 in. of snow most winters, per the COLLEGEVILLE ST JOHN'S, MN US station's 1991-2020 NOAA normal. See the density guide.
Read this before you use Stearns 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. Details: the calculation guide.