SnowLoadCheck

Cocke County, TN Roof Snow Load - 10 psf

Cocke County, TN roof snow load, translated

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10 psf

A typical heated home in Cocke County is designed to carry 10 pounds per square foot of snow on its roof, per ASCE 7-22. §7.3.4's low-slope minimum of 10 psf is what actually governs on a flat or low-pitch roof here - higher than the 7 psf the base ground-load formula gives.

On a roof that means 22 in. of fresh snow, 8 in. once it packs down, or 2 in. of solid ice - three very different piles for the same load. A modest addition to standard roof loading. Ordinary residential construction handles this without extra bracing.

Cocke County at a glance

Where Cocke County ranks

#44 of 95 Tennessee counties by design load, top 66% of 2,758 nationally - that's Cocke County's spot. That's 0.3 psf below Tennessee's own county-average design load of 10.3 psf.

FIPS 47029, population 37,596, centered near 35.9162°N 83.1192°W. ASCE 7's underlying ground snow load here is 10 psf before the code's exposure and importance factors bring it to the 10 psf design figure above.

Cocke County: average annual snowfall

Cocke County sees about 3.3 in. of snow most winters, per the NEWPORT 1 NW, TN US station's 1991-2020 NOAA normal. See the density guide.

Read this before you use Cocke 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.