SnowLoadCheck

Virginia Beach city, VA Roof Snow Load - 10 psf

Virginia Beach city, VA roof snow load, translated

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10 psf

A typical heated home in Virginia Beach city is designed to carry 10 pounds per square foot of snow on its roof, per ASCE 7-22. ASCE 7's low-slope-roof minimum (§7.3.4) raises the governing figure to 10 psf - higher than the 7 psf the ground-load formula alone would give, and the code says use the larger one.

On a roof that means 22 in. of fresh snow, 8 in. once it packs down, or 2 in. of solid ice - three very different piles for the same load. Standard residential construction handles a load this size without extra bracing; it is a modest addition on top of ordinary roof loading.

Virginia Beach city, VA: quick facts

Where Virginia Beach city ranks

#102 of 110 Virginia counties by design load, top 60% of 2,758 nationally - that's Virginia Beach city's spot. That's 8.3 psf below Virginia's own county-average design load of 18.3 psf.

FIPS 51810, population 454,808, centered near 36.7795°N 76.0291°W. ASCE 7's underlying ground snow load here is 10 psf before the code's exposure and importance factors bring it to the 10 psf design figure above.

Virginia Beach city: average annual snowfall

Virginia Beach city sees about 3.4 in. of snow most winters, per the OCEANA NAS, VA US station's 1991-2020 NOAA normal. See the density guide.

Read this before you use Virginia Beach city'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.