Towns County, GA Roof Snow Load - 10 psf
Towns County, GA roof snow load, translated
A typical heated home in Towns 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; Towns 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. This is a modest add-on to standard roof loading - ordinary residential construction carries it without extra bracing.
Towns County, GA: quick facts
- Design roof snow load10 psf
- Ground snow load, ASCE 7 map10 psf
- National rank#1,968 of 2,758
- Georgia rank#18 of 159
- Population13,184
- Annual snowfall, NOAA normal3.1 in.
- FIPS13281
Where Towns County ranks
#18 of 159 Georgia counties by design load, top 71% of 2,758 nationally - that's Towns County's spot. 3.6 psf is Georgia's typical county figure - Towns County beats it by 6.4 psf.
FIPS 13281, population 13,184, centered near 34.9025°N 83.7323°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.
Towns County: average annual snowfall
Towns County sees about 3.1 in. of snow most winters, per the BLAIRSVILLE EXP STN, GA US station's 1991-2020 NOAA normal. See the density guide.
Read this before you use Towns 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.)