Hill County, TX Roof Snow Load - 5 psf
Hill County, TX roof snow load, translated
A typical heated home in Hill 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. A modest addition to standard roof loading. Ordinary residential construction handles this without extra bracing.
Already snow on the roof in Hill County?
Hill County, TX: quick facts
- Design roof snow load5 psf
- Ground snow load, ASCE 7 map5 psf
- National rank#2,211 of 2,758
- Texas rank#100 of 254
- Population38,771
- Annual snowfall, NOAA normal0.9 in.
- FIPS48217
Where Hill County ranks
#100 of 254 Texas counties by design load, top 80% of 2,758 nationally - that's Hill County's spot. 5.4 psf is Texas's typical county figure - Hill County comes in 0.4 psf under it.
FIPS 48217, population 38,771, centered near 31.9826°N 97.1306°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.
Hill County: average annual snowfall
Hill County sees about 0.9 in. of snow most winters, per the ITASCA 5SSW, TX US station's 1991-2020 NOAA normal. See the density guide.
Read this before you use Hill 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. Details: the calculation guide.