SnowLoadCheck

Vanderburgh County, IN Roof Snow Load - 15 psf

Vanderburgh County, IN roof snow load, translated

Moderate
15 psf

A typical heated home in Vanderburgh County is designed to carry 15 pounds per square foot of snow on its roof, per ASCE 7-22. Flat and low-pitch roofs in Vanderburgh County are actually governed by ASCE 7's §7.3.4 minimum of 15 psf, not the 10.5 psf the ground-load formula alone would produce.

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. 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.

Vanderburgh County in numbers

Where Vanderburgh County ranks

#77 of 89 Indiana counties by design load, top 48% of 2,758 nationally - that's Vanderburgh County's spot. 19.3 psf is Indiana's typical county figure - Vanderburgh County comes in 4.3 psf under it.

FIPS 18163, population 180,387, centered near 38.0201°N 87.5862°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.

Vanderburgh County: average annual snowfall

Vanderburgh County sees about 10.8 in. of snow most winters, per the EVANSVILLE REGIONAL AP, IN US station's 1991-2020 NOAA normal. See the density guide.

Read this before you use Vanderburgh 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.