Craighead County, AR Roof Snow Load - 10 psf
Craighead County, AR roof snow load, translated
A typical heated home in Craighead 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.
Craighead County in numbers
- Design roof snow load10 psf
- Ground snow load, ASCE 7 map10 psf
- National rank#1,703 of 2,758
- Arkansas rank#12 of 75
- Population115,852
- Annual snowfall, NOAA normal3.9 in.
- FIPS05031
Where Craighead County ranks
#12 of 75 Arkansas counties by design load, top 62% of 2,758 nationally - that's Craighead County's spot. 10.1 psf is Arkansas's typical county figure - Craighead County comes in 0.1 psf under it.
FIPS 05031, population 115,852, centered near 35.8277°N 90.6314°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.
Craighead County: average annual snowfall
Craighead County sees about 3.9 in. of snow most winters, per the JONESBORO 2 NE, AR US station's 1991-2020 NOAA normal. See the density guide.
Read this before you use Craighead 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.)