Harris County, GA Roof Snow Load - 5 psf
Harris County, GA roof snow load, translated
A typical heated home in Harris County is designed to carry 5 pounds per square foot of snow on its roof, per ASCE 7-22. §7.3.4's low-slope minimum of 5 psf is what actually governs on a flat or low-pitch roof here - higher than the 3.5 psf the base ground-load formula gives.
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.
Harris County at a glance
- Design roof snow load5 psf
- Ground snow load, ASCE 7 map5 psf
- National rank#2,217 of 2,758
- Georgia rank#52 of 159
- Population36,929
- Annual snowfall, NOAA normal0.5 in.
- FIPS13145
Where Harris County ranks
#52 of 159 Georgia counties by design load, top 80% of 2,758 nationally - that's Harris County's spot. That's 1.4 psf above Georgia's own county-average design load of 3.6 psf.
FIPS 13145, population 36,929, centered near 32.7315°N 84.9124°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.
Harris County: average annual snowfall
Harris County sees about 0.5 in. of snow most winters, per the COLUMBUS METRO AP, GA US station's 1991-2020 NOAA normal. See the density guide.
Read this before you use Harris 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.)