SnowLoadCheck

Torrance County, NM Roof Snow Load - 10 psf

Torrance County, NM roof snow load, translated

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10 psf

A typical heated home in Torrance County is designed to carry 10 pounds per square foot of snow on its roof, per ASCE 7-22. The physics-based figure alone would be 7 psf, but ASCE 7's own low-slope minimum (§7.3.4) sets a floor of 10 psf for flat and low-pitch roofs here, which is the number that actually governs.

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.

Snow on Torrance County's roofs right now?

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Torrance County in numbers

Where Torrance County ranks

#6 of 27 New Mexico counties by design load, top 70% of 2,758 nationally - that's Torrance County's spot. New Mexico counties average 6.9 psf; Torrance County runs 3.1 psf higher than that.

FIPS 35057, population 15,986, centered near 34.555°N 105.8906°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.

Torrance County: average annual snowfall

Torrance County sees about 12.9 in. of snow most winters, per the PROGRESSO, NM US station's 1991-2020 NOAA normal. See the density guide.

Read this before you use Torrance 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.)