A roofing panel for holding accumulated snow in equilibrium, comprising:
- a sheet of metallic material having an upper surface and having a transverse and a longitudinal dimension;
- said sheet of material having a generally rectangular shape and including a plurality of integrally formed smoothly rounded contoured shaped upstanding barriers for helping to hold back an avalanche of accumulated snow or ice, each barrier having a transverse dimension substantially less than the transverse dimension of said sheet;
- said plurality of integrally formed upstanding barriers being arranged angularly displaced in spaced apart rows for helping to hold accumulated snow in its originally deposited position on said upper surface;
- each integrally formed barrier having a smoothly rounded contoured back portion for facilitating the initial accumulation of snow thereabout curvilinearly, said back portion having a longitudinal dimension;
- each integrally formed barrier further having an upstanding front wall portion for helping to arrest downward motion of accumulated snow along said upper surface;
- said back portion being interconnected to said sheet of material along a curvilinearly shaped smoothly rounded bottom edge portion of said back portion;
- said front wall portion being interconnected to said sheet of material along a straight bottom edge portion of said front wall portion;
- said front wall extending upwardly from said upper surface at an angle .theta. relative thereto and terminating at a distance d sufficient to help reduce an avalanche of accumulated snow from moving along said upper surface;
- said front wall having a smoothly rounded top edge extending traversely across the entire transverse dimension of the barrier for helping to prevent metal failures between the back portion and the front wall;
- said back portion sloping downwardly and rearwardly from the smoothly rounded top edge of said wall to the upper surface along said back bottom edge portion for strengthening the body portion and the wall sufficiently to help prevent collapse when subjected to accumulated snow or ice loading;
- said back body being generally triangularly shaped in cross section throughout the longitudinal dimension of each barrier for strengthening said body under accumulated snow or ice loading;
- and
- said front wall having a flat plane disposed at an angle .beta. other than zero relative to the transverse dimension to said sheet forming a lower corner and to guiding water flow downwardly under the force of gravity along said front wall and around said lower corner and downwardly away from said back portion for helping prevent the accumulation of standing water as accumulated snow or ice melts gradually.