Cook County, MN Roof Snow Load - 42 psf
Cook County, MN roof snow load, translated
A typical heated home in Cook County is designed to carry 42 pounds per square foot of snow on its roof, per ASCE 7-22.
On a roof that means 92.4 in. of fresh snow, 33.6 in. once it packs down, or 8.4 in. of solid ice - three very different piles for the same load. This is a serious structural load - older homes built before modern snow-load provisions, or ones with low-slope or flat roof sections, are worth having checked.
Cook County at a glance
- Design roof snow load42 psf
- Ground snow load, ASCE 7 map60 psf
- National rank#78 of 2,758
- Minnesota rank#25 of 87
- Population5,571
- Annual snowfall, NOAA normal50.9 in.
- FIPS27031
Where Cook County ranks
#25 of 87 Minnesota counties by design load, top 3% of 2,758 nationally - that's Cook County's spot. 37.4 psf is Minnesota's typical county figure - Cook County beats it by 4.6 psf.
FIPS 27031, population 5,571, centered near 47.7586°N 90.3443°W. ASCE 7's underlying ground snow load here is 60 psf before the code's exposure and importance factors bring it to the 42 psf design figure above.
Cook County: average annual snowfall
Cook County sees about 50.9 in. of snow most winters, per the GRAND MARAIS, MN US station's 1991-2020 NOAA normal. See the density guide.
Read this before you use Cook 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.)