Hancock County, ME Roof Snow Load - 42 psf
Hancock County, ME roof snow load, translated
A typical heated home in Hancock 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. 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.
Hancock County in numbers
- Design roof snow load42 psf
- Ground snow load, ASCE 7 map60 psf
- National rank#31 of 2,758
- Maine rank#8 of 12
- Population56,946
- Annual snowfall, NOAA normal74.6 in.
- FIPS23009
Where Hancock County ranks
#8 of 12 Maine counties by design load, top 1% of 2,758 nationally - that's Hancock County's spot. 47.8 psf is Maine's typical county figure - Hancock County comes in 5.8 psf under it.
FIPS 23009, population 56,946, centered near 44.5649°N 68.3707°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.
Hancock County: average annual snowfall
Hancock County sees about 74.6 in. of snow most winters, per the BANGOR INTL AP, ME US station's 1991-2020 NOAA normal. That station is far enough away (27.3 mi) that local snowfall - especially at a different elevation or near a lake - can run noticeably higher or lower than this figure. See the density guide.
Read this before you use Hancock 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.)