Richmond County, NC Roof Snow Load - 10 psf
Richmond County, NC roof snow load, translated
A typical heated home in Richmond County is designed to carry 10 pounds per square foot of snow on its roof, per ASCE 7-22. §7.3.4's low-slope minimum of 10 psf is what actually governs on a flat or low-pitch roof here - higher than the 7 psf the base ground-load formula gives.
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.
Richmond County in numbers
- Design roof snow load10 psf
- Ground snow load, ASCE 7 map10 psf
- National rank#1,798 of 2,758
- North Carolina rank#76 of 100
- Population41,990
- Annual snowfall, NOAA normal0.5 in.
- FIPS37153
Where Richmond County ranks
#76 of 100 North Carolina counties by design load, top 65% of 2,758 nationally - that's Richmond County's spot. That's 2.9 psf below North Carolina's own county-average design load of 12.9 psf.
FIPS 37153, population 41,990, centered near 35.0046°N 79.7557°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.
Richmond County: average annual snowfall
Richmond County sees about 0.5 in. of snow most winters, per the HAMLET, NC US station's 1991-2020 NOAA normal. See the density guide.
Read this before you use Richmond 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.