SnowLoadCheck

Baldwin County, GA Roof Snow Load - 5 psf

Baldwin County, GA roof snow load, translated

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5 psf

A typical heated home in Baldwin County is designed to carry 5 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 5 psf - higher than the 3.5 psf the ground-load formula alone would give, and the code says use the larger one.

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. A modest addition to standard roof loading. Ordinary residential construction handles this without extra bracing.

Baldwin County at a glance

Where Baldwin County ranks

#51 of 159 Georgia counties by design load, top 80% of 2,758 nationally - that's Baldwin County's spot. 3.6 psf is Georgia's typical county figure - Baldwin County beats it by 1.4 psf.

FIPS 13009, population 43,644, centered near 33.0595°N 83.2555°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.

Baldwin County: average annual snowfall

Baldwin County sees about 0.6 in. of snow most winters, per the MILLEDGEVILLE, GA US station's 1991-2020 NOAA normal. See the density guide.

Read this before you use Baldwin 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. (How this figure is calculated.)