Madison Parish, LA Roof Snow Load - 5 psf
Madison Parish, LA roof snow load, translated
A typical heated home in Madison Parish is designed to carry 5 pounds per square foot of snow on its roof, per ASCE 7-22. 3.5 psf is what the ground-load formula alone gives; Madison Parish's 5 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 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. Standard residential construction handles a load this size without extra bracing; it is a modest addition on top of ordinary roof loading.
Madison Parish at a glance
- Design roof snow load5 psf
- Ground snow load, ASCE 7 map5 psf
- National rank#2,395 of 2,758
- Louisiana rank#27 of 64
- Population9,093
- Annual snowfall, NOAA normal0.3 in.
- FIPS22065
Where Madison Parish ranks
#27 of 64 Louisiana counties by design load, top 87% of 2,758 nationally - that's Madison Parish's spot. Louisiana counties average 2.4 psf; Madison Parish runs 2.6 psf higher than that.
FIPS 22065, population 9,093, centered near 32.3469°N 91.2319°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.
Madison Parish: average annual snowfall
Madison Parish sees about 0.3 in. of snow most winters, per the TALLULAH, LA US station's 1991-2020 NOAA normal. See the density guide.
Read this before you use Madison Parish'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.