Wind and Snow Load Ratings for Humanitarian Warehouse Tents
- Tony Miller
- Aug 21
- 4 min read
A warehouse tent's wind rating is the speed the frame, membrane and anchorage were calculated to survive together, not a property of the fabric. Losberger De Boer designs industrial halls to 90 km/h and a reinforced version to 112.5 km/h. The snow rating on the same datasheet does nothing in East Africa.
What does a wind load rating actually mean?
It is a design value, valid only when the structure is erected, tensioned and anchored exactly as the drawing says. Losberger De Boer designs its industrial halls to Eurocode for wind speeds up to 90 km/h (25 m/s), a reinforced version to 112.5 km/h, and its event structures to 100 km/h (28 m/s) under DIN EN 13782. Rubb Buildings publishes no headline figure, saying only that past projects have been designed to sustain up to 135 mph and snow loads up to 500 kg/m², to British Standards or Eurocodes, or to local code where the building is going.
There is no universal rating for a "warehouse tent": the number belongs to one configuration, and it is void the moment the structure goes up differently.
Which standards produce the numbers?
Tents over 50 m² of ground area fall under BS EN 13782, covering design, calculation, manufacture, installation and maintenance of mobile, temporarily installed tents, including verification of stability, resistance and operating safety. The load cases come from Eurocode 1: EN 1991-1-4 for wind actions and EN 1991-1-3 for snow loads. The standard humanitarian mobile storage unit of 24 x 10 x 5 m, 240 m² of floor, procured by the Logistics Cluster sits well inside that scope.
Why is a snow load printed on a spec sheet for South Sudan?
Because the structure was certified in Europe. The Eurocodes are adopted across the 31 EU and EFTA member states and the United Kingdom, snow is a mandatory load case in that set, and manufacturers publish one datasheet rather than one per climate. So the number reaches Juba.
Say it plainly: no storage site you will run in South Sudan, Uganda or eastern DRC gets snow, and the rating is dead weight on the page. It can also mislead. Snow presses down evenly, while wind acts sideways and, more dangerously, lifts, so a generous snow rating says almost nothing about whether the hall stays down in a squall. The roof loads you do carry here are ponded rainwater on a slack membrane, dust, and whatever a team hangs off the frame.
How the rating decides anchoring and ballast
The wind figure is only real with its foundation. Rubb's specification gives three options: bolting to a concrete slab or ring beam, fixing with ground anchors, or securing with ballast weights, with the membrane tensioned over the steel and anchored to the foundations. Which one you can use is a site question, not a catalogue question. Ground anchors assume soil that holds a pull-out load, and the black cotton soils around Juba go from concrete-hard to saturated within a week of the rains starting. Where anchor capacity cannot be demonstrated, buy ballast and budget the concrete, transport and labour to place it. A hall rated for 100 km/h and pegged into wet clay is rated for nothing.
What to ask a supplier for in writing
Design wind speed in m/s and km/h, and the standard it was calculated to (EN 13782, EN 1991-1-4 or ASCE 7).
Stamped calculations for your span and configuration, not a range brochure.
The anchoring or ballast scheme the rating assumes, with per-point loads and ballast mass.
Whether the rating holds with doors open, since an open gable end changes internal pressure.
Membrane specification, joint detail and re-tensioning intervals; a slack membrane fails before the frame does.
Put these in the tender documents, not the sales email. SLS supplies Hallgruppen modular and semi-permanent warehouses into this environment and works the same checklist with UN agency and NGO supply teams before an order is placed.
Frequently asked questions
What wind speed should a humanitarian warehouse tent be rated for?
Treat 90 to 112.5 km/h as the standard commercial band: Losberger De Boer designs industrial halls to 90 km/h (25 m/s) and a reinforced version to 112.5 km/h. Higher is available, engineered and priced per site.
Does the snow load rating matter in East Africa?
No. Snow is a mandatory load case under EN 1991-1-3 within the Eurocodes, adopted across the 31 EU and EFTA member states and the United Kingdom, so manufacturers print it on a global datasheet. It has no operational meaning in South Sudan, Uganda or DR Congo.
Is the wind rating valid whatever the anchoring?
No. Rubb's specification ties the structure to a slab, ground anchors or ballast weights, with the membrane tensioned over the frame and anchored to the foundations. Change the foundation and the rating no longer applies.
Which standard covers warehouse tents?
BS EN 13782, covering mobile, temporarily installed tents with more than 50 m² of ground area, from design and calculation through installation and maintenance, with wind and snow actions taken from Eurocode 1.
Related reading
Specialized Logistics Solutions is an in-country distributor headquartered in Juba, an authorised distributor for Hallgruppen structures, Aquatabs (Medentech/Kersia), P&G Purifier of Water, Oxfam tanks and bladders (Butyl Products UK), Multiquip and Aussie Pumps, and a UNGM-registered vendor (No. 380716). Authorised-distributor status is what lets us obtain the manufacturer's stamped calculations and warranty for the exact configuration you buy, not a generic rating from a reseller. Request a quotation from SLS to specify a structure against your site's real wind and anchoring conditions.
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