Cumberland County, ME Roof Snow Load - 49 psf
Cumberland County, ME roof snow load, translated
A typical heated home in Cumberland County is designed to carry 49 pounds per square foot of snow on its roof, per ASCE 7-22.
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. 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.
Cumberland County, ME: quick facts
- Design roof snow load49 psf
- Ground snow load, ASCE 7 map70 psf
- National rank#8 of 2,758
- Maine rank#5 of 12
- Population313,809
- Annual snowfall, NOAA normal68.7 in.
- FIPS23005
Where Cumberland County ranks
#5 of 12 Maine counties by design load, top 1% of 2,758 nationally - that's Cumberland County's spot. 47.8 psf is Maine's typical county figure - Cumberland County beats it by 1.2 psf.
FIPS 23005, population 313,809, centered near 43.8083°N 70.3304°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.
Cumberland County: average annual snowfall
Cumberland County sees about 68.7 in. of snow most winters, per the PORTLAND INTL JETPORT, ME US station's 1991-2020 NOAA normal. See the density guide.
Read this before you use Cumberland 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.)