The 2020 National Snow Load Study

• Main Authors: Bean, Brennan, Maguire, Marc, Sun, Yan, Wagstaff, Jadon, Al-Rubaye, Salam Adil, Wheeler, Jesse, Jarman, Scout, Rogers, Miranda
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Utah State University 2021
• Subjects: Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.26077/200k-pr86; https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/mathsci_facpub/276

The United States has a rich history of snow load studies at the state and national level. The current ASCE 7 snow loads are based on studies performed at the Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL) ca. 1980 and updated ca. 1993. The map includes large regions where a site-specific case study is required to establish the load. Many state reports attempt to address the "case-study regions" designated in the current ASCE 7 design snow load requirements. The independently developed state-specific requirements vary in approach, which can lead to discrepancies in requirements at state boundaries. In addition, there has been great interest to develop site-specific reliability-targeted loads that replace the current load and importance factors applied to 50-year snow load events as defined in ASCE 7-16. This interest stems from the fact that the relative variability in extreme snow load events is not constant across the country, leading to a non-constant probability of failure for a given design scenario. This report describes the creation of a modern, universal, and reproducible approach for estimating reliability-targeted design ground snow loads for the conterminous United States. This new approach significantly reduces the size of case-study regions as currently designated in ASCE 7-16 and resolves discrepancies in design snow load requirements that currently exist along western state boundaries.