Claiborne County, MS Roof Snow Load - 5 psf
Claiborne County, MS roof snow load, translated
A typical heated home in Claiborne County is designed to carry 5 pounds per square foot of snow on its roof, per ASCE 7-22. §7.3.4's low-slope minimum of 5 psf is what actually governs on a flat or low-pitch roof here - higher than the 3.5 psf the base ground-load formula gives.
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. Standard residential construction handles a load this size without extra bracing; it is a modest addition on top of ordinary roof loading.
Claiborne County in numbers
- Design roof snow load5 psf
- Ground snow load, ASCE 7 map5 psf
- National rank#2,404 of 2,758
- Mississippi rank#68 of 82
- Population8,122
- Annual snowfall, NOAA normal0.5 in.
- FIPS28021
Where Claiborne County ranks
#68 of 82 Mississippi counties by design load, top 87% of 2,758 nationally - that's Claiborne County's spot. 6.5 psf is Mississippi's typical county figure - Claiborne County comes in 1.5 psf under it.
FIPS 28021, population 8,122, centered near 31.9728°N 90.9154°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.
Claiborne County: average annual snowfall
Claiborne County sees about 0.5 in. of snow most winters, per the PORT GIBSON 1 NE, MS US station's 1991-2020 NOAA normal. See the density guide.
Read this before you use Claiborne 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.