Humboldt County, NV Roof Snow Load - 5 psf
Humboldt County, NV roof snow load, translated
A typical heated home in Humboldt County is designed to carry 5 pounds per square foot of snow on its roof, per ASCE 7-22. ASCE 7's low-slope-roof minimum (§7.3.4) raises the governing figure to 5 psf - higher than the 3.5 psf the ground-load formula alone would give, and the code says use the larger one.
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.
Humboldt County in numbers
- Design roof snow load5 psf
- Ground snow load, ASCE 7 map5 psf
- National rank#2,324 of 2,758
- Nevada rank#7 of 14
- Population17,116
- Annual snowfall, NOAA normal22 in.
- FIPS32013
Where Humboldt County ranks
#7 of 14 Nevada counties by design load, top 84% of 2,758 nationally - that's Humboldt County's spot. Nevada counties average 6.8 psf; Humboldt County runs 1.8 psf lower than that.
FIPS 32013, population 17,116, centered near 41.4079°N 118.1276°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.
Humboldt County: average annual snowfall
Humboldt County sees about 22 in. of snow most winters, per the WINNEMUCCA MUNI AP, NV US station's 1991-2020 NOAA normal. Worth noting: the nearest station reporting snowfall normals sits 38.7 mi from Humboldt County's center, so treat this as a regional figure rather than an exact one. See the density guide.
Read this before you use Humboldt 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.)