Chouteau County, MT Roof Snow Load - Case Study Area
Why doesn't Chouteau County have a snow load number?
ASCE 7's own snow load map has no single figure for Chouteau County: the terrain is complex enough that the code (§7.2) requires an elevation-specific study rather than a county-wide value. That is the map being accurate, not a data gap.
FIPS 30015, population 5,880. 386 US counties get this same case-study treatment; Chouteau County is one of them.
Chouteau County at a glance
- Population5,880
- Annual snowfall, NOAA normal68.7 in.
- FIPS30015
Chouteau County: average annual snowfall
Chouteau County sees about 68.7 in. of snow most winters, per the WARRICK 2 NW, MT US station's 1991-2020 NOAA normal. Worth noting: the nearest station reporting snowfall normals sits 39.1 mi from Chouteau County's center, so treat this as a regional figure rather than an exact one. See the density guide.
Read this before you use Chouteau 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.)