SnowLoadCheck

Archer County, TX Roof Snow Load - 5 psf

Archer County, TX roof snow load, translated

Light
5 psf

A typical heated home in Archer County is designed to carry 5 pounds per square foot of snow on its roof, per ASCE 7-22. §7.3.4's low-slope minimum of 5 psf is what actually governs on a flat or low-pitch roof here - higher than the 3.5 psf the base ground-load formula gives.

On a roof that means 11 in. of fresh snow, 4 in. once it packs down, or 1 in. of solid ice - three very different piles for the same load. This is a modest add-on to standard roof loading - ordinary residential construction carries it without extra bracing.

Archer County in numbers

Where Archer County ranks

#168 of 254 Texas counties by design load, top 87% of 2,758 nationally - that's Archer County's spot. 5.4 psf is Texas's typical county figure - Archer County comes in 0.4 psf under it.

FIPS 48009, population 9,155, centered near 33.6163°N 98.6873°W. ASCE 7's underlying ground snow load here is 5 psf before the code's exposure and importance factors bring it to the 5 psf design figure above.

Archer County: average annual snowfall

Archer County sees about 1.2 in. of snow most winters, per the OLNEY 5 NNW, TX US station's 1991-2020 NOAA normal. See the density guide.

Read this before you use Archer 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.