Lamar County, GA Roof Snow Load - 5 psf
Lamar County, GA roof snow load, translated
A typical heated home in Lamar 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. This is a modest add-on to standard roof loading - ordinary residential construction carries it without extra bracing.
Lamar County at a glance
- Design roof snow load5 psf
- Ground snow load, ASCE 7 map5 psf
- National rank#2,289 of 2,758
- Georgia rank#70 of 159
- Population20,690
- Annual snowfall, NOAA normal0.3 in.
- FIPS13171
Where Lamar County ranks
#70 of 159 Georgia counties by design load, top 83% of 2,758 nationally - that's Lamar County's spot. 3.6 psf is Georgia's typical county figure - Lamar County beats it by 1.4 psf.
FIPS 13171, population 20,690, centered near 33.0744°N 84.1467°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.
Lamar County: average annual snowfall
Lamar County sees about 0.3 in. of snow most winters, per the THOMASTON 4SE, GA US station's 1991-2020 NOAA normal. See the density guide.
Read this before you use Lamar 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.)