Berkeley County, SC Roof Snow Load - 5 psf
Berkeley County, SC roof snow load, translated
A typical heated home in Berkeley County is designed to carry 5 pounds per square foot of snow on its roof, per ASCE 7-22. Flat and low-pitch roofs in Berkeley County are actually governed by ASCE 7's §7.3.4 minimum of 5 psf, not the 3.5 psf the ground-load formula alone would produce.
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.
Berkeley County at a glance
- Design roof snow load5 psf
- Ground snow load, ASCE 7 map5 psf
- National rank#2,090 of 2,758
- South Carolina rank#37 of 46
- Population264,276
- Annual snowfall, NOAA normal0 in.
- FIPS45015
Where Berkeley County ranks
#37 of 46 South Carolina counties by design load, top 76% of 2,758 nationally - that's Berkeley County's spot. 8.8 psf is South Carolina's typical county figure - Berkeley County comes in 3.8 psf under it.
FIPS 45015, population 264,276, centered near 33.2077°N 79.9537°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.
Berkeley County: average annual snowfall
Berkeley County sees about 0 in. of snow most winters, per the MONCKS CORNER 4 N, SC US station's 1991-2020 NOAA normal. See the density guide.
Read this before you use Berkeley 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.)