Clearwater County, MN Roof Snow Load - 49 psf

Clearwater County, MN roof snow load, translated

On a roof that means 107.8 in. of fresh snow, 39.2 in. once it packs down, or 9.8 in. of solid ice - three very different piles for the same load. A serious structural load. Homes built before modern snow-load provisions, or with low-slope/flat roof sections, are the ones most worth having checked.

Clearwater County, MN: quick facts

• Design roof snow load49 psf
• Ground snow load, ASCE 7 map70 psf
• National rank#21 of 2,758
• Minnesota rank#6 of 87
• Population8,630
• Annual snowfall, NOAA normal49.9 in.
• FIPS27029

Where Clearwater County ranks

#6 of 87 Minnesota counties by design load, top 1% of 2,758 nationally - that's Clearwater County's spot. 37.4 psf is Minnesota's typical county figure - Clearwater County beats it by 11.6 psf.

FIPS 27029, population 8,630, centered near 47.5759°N 95.3711°W. ASCE 7's underlying ground snow load here is 70 psf before the code's exposure and importance factors bring it to the 49 psf design figure above.

Clearwater County: average annual snowfall

Clearwater County sees about 49.9 in. of snow most winters, per the RED LAKE FALLS, MN US station's 1991-2020 NOAA normal. 47.3 mi is a real gap between Clearwater County and its nearest reporting station, so local snowfall can diverge from this figure, especially near elevation changes. See the density guide.

Read this before you use Clearwater 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.)