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Haley Lehman
Haley Lehman
Home Depot employees shovel snow off of the roof into a red tarp. A crane disposed of the snow near the entrance.
Haley Lehman
Haley Lehman
As spring approaches, the snow load is hovering around average.
The current snow load is approximately 27 pounds per square foot, or psf, according to Christoph Falke at City of Fairbanks Building Department.
As of Tuesday afternoon, Creamers Field has a snow water equivalent of 5.2 inches, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. This is equivalent to about 27 psf. Chena Lake has a snow water equivalent of 6 inches, which is about 31 psf.
The city of Fairbanks has required roofs to be designed to hold a minimum of 50 psf since the 1990s, Falke said. Residents shouldn’t worry about the snow load on their roofs this year; however, they should check their roof drains and scuppers to make sure they’re draining properly, Falke said. If ice is forming in drains and on roofs, that’s an indication that they aren’t draining properly.
Contact Haley Lehman at 907-459-7575 or by email at hlehman@newsminer.com