Polk County, AR Roof Snow Load - 10 psf
Polk County, AR roof snow load, translated
A typical heated home in Polk County is designed to carry 10 pounds per square foot of snow on its roof, per ASCE 7-22. 7 psf is what the ground-load formula alone gives; Polk County's 10 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 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. A modest addition to standard roof loading. Ordinary residential construction handles this without extra bracing.
Polk County in numbers
- Design roof snow load10 psf
- Ground snow load, ASCE 7 map10 psf
- National rank#1,915 of 2,758
- Arkansas rank#33 of 75
- Population19,434
- Annual snowfall, NOAA normal4 in.
- FIPS05113
Where Polk County ranks
#33 of 75 Arkansas counties by design load, top 69% of 2,758 nationally - that's Polk County's spot. Arkansas counties average 10.1 psf; Polk County runs 0.1 psf lower than that.
FIPS 05113, population 19,434, centered near 34.491°N 94.2309°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.
Polk County: average annual snowfall
Polk County sees about 4 in. of snow most winters, per the MENA, AR US station's 1991-2020 NOAA normal. See the density guide.
Read this before you use Polk 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. (How this figure is calculated.)