Covington County, MS Roof Snow Load - 5 psf
Covington County, MS roof snow load, translated
A typical heated home in Covington County is designed to carry 5 pounds per square foot of snow on its roof, per ASCE 7-22. 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.
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. This is a modest add-on to standard roof loading - ordinary residential construction carries it without extra bracing.
Covington County at a glance
- Design roof snow load5 psf
- Ground snow load, ASCE 7 map5 psf
- National rank#2,317 of 2,758
- Mississippi rank#56 of 82
- Population18,015
- Annual snowfall, NOAA normal0.2 in.
- FIPS28031
Where Covington County ranks
#56 of 82 Mississippi counties by design load, top 84% of 2,758 nationally - that's Covington County's spot. That's 1.5 psf below Mississippi's own county-average design load of 6.5 psf.
FIPS 28031, population 18,015, centered near 31.6333°N 89.5489°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.
Covington County: average annual snowfall
Covington County sees about 0.2 in. of snow most winters, per the COLLINS, MS US station's 1991-2020 NOAA normal. See the density guide.
Read this before you use Covington 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.)