Owsley County, KY Roof Snow Load - 15 psf
Owsley County, KY roof snow load, translated
A typical heated home in Owsley County is designed to carry 15 pounds per square foot of snow on its roof, per ASCE 7-22. The physics-based figure alone would be 10.5 psf, but ASCE 7's own low-slope minimum (§7.3.4) sets a floor of 15 psf for flat and low-pitch roofs here, which is the number that actually governs.
On a roof that means 33 in. of fresh snow, 12 in. once it packs down, or 3 in. of solid ice - three very different piles for the same load. Modern-code homes carry a load like this without issue; an older addition, a carport, or any flat-roofed section is where it is worth checking first.
Owsley County in numbers
- Design roof snow load15 psf
- Ground snow load, ASCE 7 map15 psf
- National rank#1,618 of 2,758
- Kentucky rank#119 of 120
- Population3,928
- Annual snowfall, NOAA normal8.6 in.
- FIPS21189
Where Owsley County ranks
#119 of 120 Kentucky counties by design load, top 59% of 2,758 nationally - that's Owsley County's spot. 15.7 psf is Kentucky's typical county figure - Owsley County comes in 0.7 psf under it.
FIPS 21189, population 3,928, centered near 37.4236°N 83.6916°W. ASCE 7's underlying ground snow load here is 15 psf before the code's exposure and importance factors bring it to the 15 psf design figure above.
Owsley County: average annual snowfall
Owsley County sees about 8.6 in. of snow most winters, per the ONEIDA, KY US station's 1991-2020 NOAA normal. See the density guide.
Read this before you use Owsley 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.