Oconee County, SC Roof Snow Load - 10 psf
Oconee County, SC roof snow load, translated
A typical heated home in Oconee County is designed to carry 10 pounds per square foot of snow on its roof, per ASCE 7-22. Flat and low-pitch roofs in Oconee County are actually governed by ASCE 7's §7.3.4 minimum of 10 psf, not the 7 psf the ground-load formula alone would produce.
On a roof that means 22 in. of fresh snow, 8 in. once it packs down, or 2 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.
Oconee County, SC: quick facts
- Design roof snow load10 psf
- Ground snow load, ASCE 7 map10 psf
- National rank#1,729 of 2,758
- South Carolina rank#14 of 46
- Population82,475
- Annual snowfall, NOAA normal2.2 in.
- FIPS45073
Where Oconee County ranks
#14 of 46 South Carolina counties by design load, top 63% of 2,758 nationally - that's Oconee County's spot. That's 1.2 psf above South Carolina's own county-average design load of 8.8 psf.
FIPS 45073, population 82,475, centered near 34.7488°N 83.0615°W. ASCE 7's underlying ground snow load here is 10 psf before the code's exposure and importance factors bring it to the 10 psf design figure above.
Oconee County: average annual snowfall
Oconee County sees about 2.2 in. of snow most winters, per the WALHALLA, SC US station's 1991-2020 NOAA normal. See the density guide.
Read this before you use Oconee 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. See the methodology guide.