Franklin County, TX Roof Snow Load - 5 psf
Franklin County, TX roof snow load, translated
A typical heated home in Franklin County is designed to carry 5 pounds per square foot of snow on its roof, per ASCE 7-22. 3.5 psf is what the ground-load formula alone gives; Franklin County's 5 psf low-slope minimum (§7.3.4) beats it, so that figure is the one that governs on flat and low-pitch roofs.
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. A modest addition to standard roof loading. Ordinary residential construction handles this without extra bracing.
Franklin County in numbers
- Design roof snow load5 psf
- Ground snow load, ASCE 7 map5 psf
- National rank#2,376 of 2,758
- Texas rank#160 of 254
- Population10,912
- Annual snowfall, NOAA normal0.4 in.
- FIPS48159
Where Franklin County ranks
#160 of 254 Texas counties by design load, top 86% of 2,758 nationally - that's Franklin County's spot. Texas counties average 5.4 psf; Franklin County runs 0.4 psf lower than that.
FIPS 48159, population 10,912, centered near 33.1758°N 95.2191°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.
Franklin County: average annual snowfall
Franklin County sees about 0.4 in. of snow most winters, per the WINNSBORO 5 NNE, TX US station's 1991-2020 NOAA normal. See the density guide.
Read this before you use Franklin 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. See the methodology guide.