SnowLoadCheck

Deer Lodge County, MT Roof Snow Load - Case Study Area

Deer Lodge County, MT: no map figure, on purpose

Case study area
No map value

ASCE 7's own snow load map has no single figure for Deer Lodge County: the terrain is complex enough that the code (§7.2) requires an elevation-specific study rather than a county-wide value. That is the map being accurate, not a data gap.

FIPS 30023, population 9,811. 386 US counties get this same case-study treatment; Deer Lodge County is one of them.

Deer Lodge County in numbers

Deer Lodge County: average annual snowfall

Deer Lodge County sees about 88.4 in. of snow most winters, per the SULA 14 NE, MT US station's 1991-2020 NOAA normal. That station is far enough away (31.4 mi) that local snowfall - especially at a different elevation or near a lake - can run noticeably higher or lower than this figure. See the density guide.

Read this before you use Deer Lodge 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.)