SnowLoadCheck

Queen Anne's County, MD Roof Snow Load - 20 psf

Queen Anne's County, MD roof snow load, translated

Moderate
20 psf

A typical heated home in Queen Anne's County is designed to carry 20 pounds per square foot of snow on its roof, per ASCE 7-22. Flat and low-pitch roofs in Queen Anne's County are actually governed by ASCE 7's §7.3.4 minimum of 20 psf, not the 17.5 psf the ground-load formula alone would produce.

On a roof that means 44 in. of fresh snow, 16 in. once it packs down, or 4 in. of solid ice - three very different piles for the same load. This is a meaningful design load - most modern-code homes handle it fine, though an addition, a carport or a flat-roofed section can be a weak spot.

Queen Anne's County at a glance

Where Queen Anne's County ranks

#16 of 21 Maryland counties by design load, top 26% of 2,758 nationally - that's Queen Anne's County's spot. Maryland counties average 20.1 psf; Queen Anne's County runs 0.1 psf lower than that.

FIPS 24035, population 53,688, centered near 39.047°N 76.0858°W. ASCE 7's underlying ground snow load here is 25 psf before the code's exposure and importance factors bring it to the 20 psf design figure above.

Queen Anne's County: average annual snowfall

Queen Anne's County sees about 16.7 in. of snow most winters, per the CHESTERTOWN, MD US station's 1991-2020 NOAA normal. See the density guide.

Read this before you use Queen Anne's 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. See the methodology guide.