SnowLoadCheck

Watauga County, NC Roof Snow Load - 20 psf

Watauga County, NC roof snow load, translated

Moderate
20 psf

A typical heated home in Watauga County is designed to carry 20 pounds per square foot of snow on its roof, per ASCE 7-22. The physics-based figure alone would be 14 psf, but ASCE 7's own low-slope minimum (§7.3.4) sets a floor of 20 psf for flat and low-pitch roofs here, which is the number that actually governs.

On a roof that means 44 in. of fresh snow, 16 in. once it packs down, or 4 in. of solid ice - three very different piles for the same load. This is a meaningful design load - most modern-code homes handle it fine, though an addition, a carport or a flat-roofed section can be a weak spot.

Watauga County at a glance

Where Watauga County ranks

#4 of 100 North Carolina counties by design load, top 26% of 2,758 nationally - that's Watauga County's spot. 12.9 psf is North Carolina's typical county figure - Watauga County beats it by 7.1 psf.

FIPS 37189, population 54,997, centered near 36.2354°N 81.7099°W. ASCE 7's underlying ground snow load here is 20 psf before the code's exposure and importance factors bring it to the 20 psf design figure above.

Watauga County: average annual snowfall

Watauga County sees about 25.6 in. of snow most winters, per the BOONE 1 SE, NC US station's 1991-2020 NOAA normal. See the density guide.

Read this before you use Watauga 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.)