Penobscot County, ME Roof Snow Load - 63 psf
Penobscot County, ME roof snow load, translated
A typical heated home in Penobscot County is designed to carry 63 pounds per square foot of snow on its roof, per ASCE 7-22.
On a roof that means 138.6 in. of fresh snow, 50.4 in. once it packs down, or 12.6 in. of solid ice - three very different piles for the same load. Few counties map a higher design load outside case-study terrain; regular roof snow removal and structural inspection are standard practice at this level.
Penobscot County in numbers
- Design roof snow load63 psf
- Ground snow load, ASCE 7 map90 psf
- National rank#2 of 2,758
- Maine rank#2 of 12
- Population156,840
- Annual snowfall, NOAA normal86.1 in.
- FIPS23019
Where Penobscot County ranks
#2 of 12 Maine counties by design load, top 1% of 2,758 nationally - that's Penobscot County's spot. That's 15.2 psf above Maine's own county-average design load of 47.8 psf.
FIPS 23019, population 156,840, centered near 45.4093°N 68.6666°W. ASCE 7's underlying ground snow load here is 90 psf before the code's exposure and importance factors bring it to the 63 psf design figure above.
Penobscot County: average annual snowfall
Penobscot County sees about 86.1 in. of snow most winters, per the MILLINOCKET, ME US station's 1991-2020 NOAA normal. See the density guide.
Read this before you use Penobscot 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. Details: the calculation guide.