SnowLoadCheck

Claiborne Parish, LA Roof Snow Load - 5 psf

Claiborne Parish, LA: your roof's ASCE 7 snow number, in plain English

Light
5 psf

Claiborne Parish's roofs are built to hold 5 psf of snow, the ASCE 7-22 figure a permit reviewer checks first. ASCE 7's low-slope-roof minimum (§7.3.4) raises the governing figure to 5 psf - higher than the 3.5 psf the ground-load formula alone would give, and the code says use the larger one.

In depth, not weight: that's roughly 11 inches of fresh, light snow, 4 inches of old, settled snow, or as little as 1 inches of solid ice - snow that heavy is rare here but ice from a freeze-thaw cycle adds up far faster than the depth suggests. Standard residential construction handles a load this size without extra bracing; it is a modest addition on top of ordinary roof loading.

Claiborne Parish in numbers

Claiborne Parish by the numbers

Nationally that's #2,350 out of 2,758 rated counties, the top 85%; within Louisiana alone, Claiborne Parish ranks #22 of 64. 2.4 psf is Louisiana's typical county figure - Claiborne Parish beats it by 2.6 psf.

Claiborne Parish, FIPS 22027, is home to 13,537 people near 32.8272°N 92.9897°W. Its 5 psf ground snow load figure is the map value; 5 psf is what a roof is actually designed for.

Claiborne Parish's snowfall, most winters

0.7 in. a year: that's Claiborne Parish's NOAA 1991-2020 snowfall normal, measured at HOMER 1N, LA US (4.4 mi away). See the density guide.

Before you rely on Claiborne Parish's number

Treat the Claiborne Parish figure as a starting point, not a final answer: it assumes standard occupancy, a heated structure and a moderately sheltered site, per ASCE 7-22's own defaults. Exposed terrain, an unheated building or a steeper roof all shift the real number.

For a real application, skip the county number and go straight to the ASCE 7 Hazard Tool - enter your coordinates and it returns a site-specific figure a plan reviewer will recognize. (How this figure is calculated.)