New York County, NY Roof Snow Load - 20 psf
New York County, NY roof snow load, translated
A typical heated home in New York County is designed to carry 20 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 20 psf - higher than the 14 psf the ground-load formula alone would give, and the code says use the larger one.
On a roof that means 44 in. of fresh snow, 16 in. once it packs down, or 4 in. of solid ice - three very different piles for the same load. This is a meaningful design load - most modern-code homes handle it fine, though an addition, a carport or a flat-roofed section can be a weak spot.
New York County in numbers
- Design roof snow load20 psf
- Ground snow load, ASCE 7 map20 psf
- National rank#500 of 2,758
- New York rank#25 of 28
- Population1,660,664
- Annual snowfall, NOAA normal29.8 in.
- FIPS36061
Where New York County ranks
#25 of 28 New York counties by design load, top 18% of 2,758 nationally - that's New York County's spot. That's 5.4 psf below New York's own county-average design load of 25.4 psf.
FIPS 36061, population 1,660,664, centered near 40.7766°N 73.9702°W. ASCE 7's underlying ground snow load here is 20 psf before the code's exposure and importance factors bring it to the 20 psf design figure above.
New York County: average annual snowfall
New York County sees about 29.8 in. of snow most winters, per the NEW YORK LAGUARDIA AP, NY US station's 1991-2020 NOAA normal. See the density guide.
Read this before you use New York 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. Details: the calculation guide.