Brown County, TX Roof Snow Load - 5 psf
How much snow is too much for a roof in Brown County, TX?
5 psf: that's what ASCE 7-22 requires a typical heated home's roof in Brown County to carry. The physics-based figure alone would be 3.5 psf, but ASCE 7's own low-slope minimum (§7.3.4) sets a floor of 5 psf for flat and low-pitch roofs here, which is the number that actually governs.
Picture it, not just weigh it: 11 in. if it's fresh powder, 4 in. once it settles, or a mere 1 in. if it's ice. A modest addition to standard roof loading. Ordinary residential construction handles this without extra bracing.
Snow on Brown County's roofs right now?
Brown County in numbers
- Design roof snow load5 psf
- Ground snow load, ASCE 7 map5 psf
- National rank#2,213 of 2,758
- Texas rank#102 of 254
- Population38,631
- Annual snowfall, NOAA normal0.7 in.
- FIPS48049
How Brown County compares
5 psf ranks #2,213 of 2,758 US counties with a mapped snow load (top 80%) - and #102 of 254 in Texas. 5.4 psf is Texas's typical county figure - Brown County comes in 0.4 psf under it.
Population 38,631 (FIPS 48049), roughly 31.7641°N 98.9985°W. The 5 psf ground snow load ASCE 7-22 maps here becomes 5 psf once the code's own design factors are applied.
Typical snowfall in Brown County, TX
NOAA's 30-year normal for Brown County: 0.7 in. of snow a year, from the SANTA ANNA 12SSE, TX US station. (fresh vs. packed vs. ice explains why.)
What this Brown County figure assumes
This is a county-level reference figure for a typical heated home built to Risk Category II (ordinary residential), on a partially exposed lot - the assumptions ASCE 7-22 itself treats as the default case. A steeper roof, a fully exposed hilltop lot, an unheated structure, or a higher risk category all change the actual number.
Brown County's permit office wants an address-specific figure, not this county average - the ASCE 7 Hazard Tool is free, takes under a minute, and outputs a PDF most reviewers accept. (How this figure is calculated.)