SnowLoadCheck

Newton County, MS Roof Snow Load - 5 psf

Newton County, MS roof snow load, translated

Light
5 psf

A typical heated home in Newton County 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; Newton County'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. A modest addition to standard roof loading. Ordinary residential construction handles this without extra bracing.

Newton County in numbers

Where Newton County ranks

#53 of 82 Mississippi counties by design load, top 83% of 2,758 nationally - that's Newton County's spot. Mississippi counties average 6.5 psf; Newton County runs 1.5 psf lower than that.

FIPS 28101, population 21,063, centered near 32.402°N 89.1184°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.

Newton County: average annual snowfall

Newton County sees about 0.4 in. of snow most winters, per the NEWTON EXP STN, MS US station's 1991-2020 NOAA normal. See the density guide.

Read this before you use Newton 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.