Hutchinson County, TX Roof Snow Load - 15 psf
Hutchinson County, TX roof snow load, translated
A typical heated home in Hutchinson County is designed to carry 15 pounds per square foot of snow on its roof, per ASCE 7-22. The physics-based figure alone would be 10.5 psf, but ASCE 7's own low-slope minimum (§7.3.4) sets a floor of 15 psf for flat and low-pitch roofs here, which is the number that actually governs.
On a roof that means 33 in. of fresh snow, 12 in. once it packs down, or 3 in. of solid ice - three very different piles for the same load. Modern-code homes carry a load like this without issue; an older addition, a carport, or any flat-roofed section is where it is worth checking first.
Hutchinson County at a glance
- Design roof snow load15 psf
- Ground snow load, ASCE 7 map15 psf
- National rank#1,472 of 2,758
- Texas rank#12 of 254
- Population19,721
- Annual snowfall, NOAA normal13.6 in.
- FIPS48233
Where Hutchinson County ranks
#12 of 254 Texas counties by design load, top 53% of 2,758 nationally - that's Hutchinson County's spot. That's 9.6 psf above Texas's own county-average design load of 5.4 psf.
FIPS 48233, population 19,721, centered near 35.837°N 101.3627°W. ASCE 7's underlying ground snow load here is 15 psf before the code's exposure and importance factors bring it to the 15 psf design figure above.
Hutchinson County: average annual snowfall
Hutchinson County sees about 13.6 in. of snow most winters, per the PANHANDLE, TX US station's 1991-2020 NOAA normal. 33.6 mi is a real gap between Hutchinson County and its nearest reporting station, so local snowfall can diverge from this figure, especially near elevation changes. See the density guide.
Read this before you use Hutchinson 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.