Kay County, OK Roof Snow Load - 15 psf
Kay County, OK roof snow load, translated
A typical heated home in Kay County is designed to carry 15 pounds per square foot of snow on its roof, per ASCE 7-22. 10.5 psf is what the ground-load formula alone gives; Kay County's 15 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 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.
Kay County, OK: quick facts
- Design roof snow load15 psf
- Ground snow load, ASCE 7 map15 psf
- National rank#1,391 of 2,758
- Oklahoma rank#5 of 77
- Population43,437
- Annual snowfall, NOAA normal7.9 in.
- FIPS40071
Where Kay County ranks
#5 of 77 Oklahoma counties by design load, top 50% of 2,758 nationally - that's Kay County's spot. That's 4 psf above Oklahoma's own county-average design load of 11 psf.
FIPS 40071, population 43,437, centered near 36.8149°N 97.1439°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.
Kay County: average annual snowfall
Kay County sees about 7.9 in. of snow most winters, per the BLACKWELL 1SSW, OK US station's 1991-2020 NOAA normal. See the density guide.
Read this before you use Kay 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.)