Carter County, TN Roof Snow Load - 15 psf
Carter County, TN roof snow load, translated
A typical heated home in Carter County is designed to carry 15 pounds per square foot of snow on its roof, per ASCE 7-22. The physics-based figure alone would be 10.5 psf, but ASCE 7's own low-slope minimum (§7.3.4) sets a floor of 15 psf for flat and low-pitch roofs here, which is the number that actually governs.
On a roof that means 33 in. of fresh snow, 12 in. once it packs down, or 3 in. of solid ice - three very different piles for the same load. This is a meaningful design load - most modern-code homes handle it fine, though an addition, a carport or a flat-roofed section can be a weak spot.
Carter County in numbers
- Design roof snow load15 psf
- Ground snow load, ASCE 7 map15 psf
- National rank#1,372 of 2,758
- Tennessee rank#4 of 95
- Population57,434
- Annual snowfall, NOAA normal6 in.
- FIPS47019
Where Carter County ranks
#4 of 95 Tennessee counties by design load, top 50% of 2,758 nationally - that's Carter County's spot. That's 4.7 psf above Tennessee's own county-average design load of 10.3 psf.
FIPS 47019, population 57,434, centered near 36.2847°N 82.1266°W. ASCE 7's underlying ground snow load here is 15 psf before the code's exposure and importance factors bring it to the 15 psf design figure above.
Carter County: average annual snowfall
Carter County sees about 6 in. of snow most winters, per the ELIZABETHTON, TN US station's 1991-2020 NOAA normal. See the density guide.
Read this before you use Carter 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. Details: the calculation guide.