What Wind Rating Does My Flagpole Need? Flag-Flying Ratings, NAAMM and the ASCE 7 Maps Explained

Your flagpole needs a wind rating, with the flag flying, that meets the wind zone at the address where it will stand. That one sentence covers most of it. The trouble is that the numbers you find online don't always agree, and that has nothing to do with anyone being careless. They are measured on different bases, from different editions of the national wind maps, and some are for a bare pole while others assume a flag is up.

This guide goes through what a flagpole wind rating actually measures, the difference between flagged and unflagged figures, the standard the industry designs to, and why one site quotes 90 mph for a town while another quotes 115 for the same place. At the end there's a short checklist you can use on any quote.

What a flagpole wind rating actually measures

A flagpole is a tall, tapered cantilever. It's fixed at the bottom and free at the top, so every pound of wind pushing on it gets multiplied by height before it reaches the base. The rating is the highest wind speed at which the shaft stays within safe stress limits.

Two things decide that number for an aluminum pole:

• The width at the base (the butt diameter). A wider tube is much stiffer. Going from a 4 inch base to a 5 inch base makes a large difference.
• The wall thickness. A thicker wall adds strength without changing the outside look much.

Height works the other way. Make the same tube taller and its rating drops quickly, because there's more pole above the ground catching wind and a longer lever arm working on the base.

You can see this plainly on America's Dealers and Distributors' flagpole price list, where every Eder pole carries its flag-flying rating next to its price. Take five 25 ft poles:

ADD's published list prices, one pole, satin finish, pole only, checked October 2026.

Same height, same metal, and the rating more than doubles from one end of the table to the other. That's why "a 25 ft flagpole" isn't a specification. The model, the base width, the wall and the rating are.

Flag-flying vs bare pole: the figure that counts

Most makers publish two ratings for each pole:

• Unflagged (bare pole): the wind the pole can take with nothing on it.
• Flagged (flag flying): the wind it can take with the recommended flag up.

The flagged number is always lower, and it is the one to buy on. A bare aluminum tube is slim and round, and wind slides around it. A flag is a big sheet of fabric that snaps and pulls at the top of the pole, which is exactly where it does the most damage. On a commercial pole the flag can easily be the largest wind load in the whole system.

ADD's best flagpole guide puts it simply: the flagged rating "is the one that matters, because a flag catches far more wind than the pole itself." Their pole pages list only the flag-flying figure for that reason, so nobody ends up comparing a bare-pole number from one place against a flag-flying number from another.

The flag size is part of the rating

A flag-flying rating assumes the flag the maker recommends for that pole. Eder lists one with every model: a 3x5 on the ECSS20, a 4x6 on the 25 ft poles, a 5x8 on most 30 ft poles, and so on. Fly a bigger flag than that and you are no longer inside the rating. The pole carries more load than it was sized for, the flag wears out faster, and the extra load can void the warranty.

If you want a bigger flag, the fix is a taller or heavier pole, not a bigger flag on the same pole. ADD's flag size guide gives the rule of thumb: flag length about a quarter to a third of the pole's exposed height.

The standard behind the numbers: ANSI/NAAMM FP 1001-07

In the US, metal flagpoles are designed to ANSI/NAAMM FP 1001-07, the Guide Specifications for Design of Metal Flagpoles from the National Association of Architectural Metal Manufacturers. A 2017 piece in The Construction Specifier by Joseph Scarpa and Marc Summers calls it "the recognized U.S. standard for the structural design of metal flagpoles" and points out what sets it apart: it accounts for the wind load of the flag as well as the pole, and its flag-drag figures come from flight-testing real flags at different sizes and speeds. The authors recommend making it the basis of design for any flagpole, wherever it's going.

That is why so many flagpole makers cite it. Eder Flag's online flagpole stress calculator describes itself as "ANSI/NAAMM FP 1001-07 Compliant." Concord American Flagpole's wind page builds on the same standard, according to Concord's own site.

On America's Dealers and Distributors' height pages, the note under each table reads that the wind figure is Eder's published flag-flying rating: a steady wind with a 1.3 gust factor, under the NAAMM standard. Put plainly, the rating is a sustained wind with an allowance for gusts built in, not a raw peak gust.

Why different sites quote different wind maps

This is where buyers get confused, and fairly so. Three numbers can all be "the wind speed" for one address:

1. The flagpole maker's own zone. Eder publishes a U.S. wind rating map, and its pole ratings are matched to it. On that map most of the interior of the country is 90 mph.
2. An older building-code map (ASCE 7-05 and earlier). These maps gave a 3-second gust "basic wind speed." Inland, much of the country read 90 mph.
3. The newer building-code maps (ASCE 7-10, 7-16 and 7-22). From ASCE 7-10 on, the maps give "ultimate" wind speeds tied to a building's risk category. The numbers went up a lot. Inland figures around 115 mph became common.

Did the wind get stronger in 2010? No. The engineers changed what the number means. The new maps show a rarer, stronger design wind, and the load factors used with them were lowered to match. The engineering blog Structures Workshop walks through the change with real examples: Providence, Risk Category II, went from 100 mph to 133 mph, and Boston from 105 to 128, while the design pressures that came out the other end barely moved, up about 10% in one city and down about 8% in the other.

The building code even gives a conversion. Section 1609.3.1 of the International Building Code lets an engineer turn an ultimate speed back into a nominal one by multiplying by the square root of 0.6, about 0.775. So 133 mph "ultimate" is about 103 mph "nominal." Those are the same wind, described two ways.

Different makers, different editions

Flagpole companies have to pick a basis, and they don't all pick the same one. From each company's own site:

• Concord American Flagpole bases its wind speed map on ANSI/NAAMM FP 1001-07 and the ASCE 7-05 map, and adds sensible advice that flags should be removed during severe weather.
• Flagpole Warehouse / FlagCo builds its free specification generator on ASCE 7-10 wind speeds, according to its own pages: you enter a ZIP code and get the figure and a spec document.
• Flagpoles Etc. points buyers to the ASCE Hazard Tool with ASCE 7-16 on its wind chart page.
• Pole-Tech publishes a wind speed chart by model, listing each pole against a range of speeds and the flag size that goes with it.
• Eder Flag matches its flag-flying ratings to its own published U.S. wind rating map.

Each of these is a reasonable, honest approach. They just aren't interchangeable. A pole rated 90 mph on Eder's basis and a site figure of 115 mph from an ASCE 7-16 lookup are not a mismatch. They're two different scales. Comparing them directly is like comparing a temperature in Celsius with one in Fahrenheit.

ADD has made its choice and says so in the footer of every page: "Wind speeds referenced on this site are the zones on Eder's published wind map, which Eder's flag-flying ratings are matched to." It keeps the rating and the zone on the same basis, which is the whole point.

Wind zones across the country

Here's how the zones run on Eder's map, using the figures ADD publishes on its state pages:

On the Texas page and the Florida page you can see the zones town by town. In Florida, where the top band is 150 mph, Eder's Hurricane series is rated to 150 with the flag flying, which matches it. Oceanfront sites get a heavy-wall or Hurricane pole by default, and ADD confirms it against the address.

Site conditions on top of the zone

A zone is a starting point. A few kinds of site call for extra margin:

• Open exposure. A pole on a bare hilltop, a beachfront lot or an open field takes more wind than the same pole between buildings.
• Ridgetops and passes. On ADD's North Carolina page, for example, the mountains read 90 mph on Eder's chart, but they note that a heavier wall is worth talking through on a high, exposed ridge.
• Salt air. On the coast the pole has to survive corrosion as well as wind, which is why ADD normally suggests anodized finishes and stainless or bronze hardware near salt water.
• Local code. Every address also has a design wind speed set by its building code. Where a town requires engineering for a permit, that work uses the code figure the jurisdiction has adopted, and an engineer checks it.

What a higher rating costs

Stepping up a zone isn't free, but it's less than people expect at common heights. Using ADD's published list prices for 30 ft poles (one pole, satin, pole only, October 2026):

• ECS30, 4 in base, 50 mph flag flying: $1,800. Suits sheltered sites only.
• ECX30, 5 in base, 85 mph: $2,730.
• ECXA30, 5 in base, 95 mph: $3,300. Clears the 90 mph interior zone.
• EC30, 6 in base, 120+ mph: $4,330.
• ECH30 Hurricane, 6 in base, 150+ mph: $6,880.

On the same 30 ft pole, going from a 90 mph zone to a 120 mph zone adds about $1,000. Spread over the decades a commercial pole stands, it's a small number. Going the other way, buying a pole rated below the wind where it stands, is the one saving that is never worth it.

How America's Dealers and Distributors handles the wind question

If you contact ADD about a pole, the first thing they want is the address. That's not a formality. Every address has its own design wind speed, and two buildings twenty miles apart can need different poles. They check the wind at the address before they quote, and they hold the wind figure for every town they cover. The wind figure they use is the zone on Eder's map, which keeps it on the same basis as the pole's flag-flying rating.

From there, the answer is usually quick:

• Inland, they quote a pole rated at least 90 mph with the flag flying, the zone for the interior.
• Near the coast, heavy-wall and Hurricane-series poles become the default, and the band is confirmed for the exact address.
• For a broken pole, they check whether the old one was too thin for the area before quoting the replacement. A replacement can often reuse the existing concrete base; send them a photo of it.
• If your spec already names a pole, they'll tell you plainly whether it's right for that address, including when it's more pole than you need.

They also put everything in writing. Final pricing, wind sizing and foundation details are confirmed before any order, and one quote covers pole, foundation, flag and labour. One person reads each request and replies with a real number, usually the same business day. The site says it well: they would rather spend fifteen minutes on the phone than sell you the wrong pole.

Not sure where to start? The Flagpole Finder on their site asks three questions and names the pole, the flag and the price, and every model in the full price list shows its flag-flying rating next to the price.

Your wind-rating checklist

Use this on any flagpole you're considering, from any seller:

• [ ] I know the wind zone for my address, and which map or basis it comes from.
• [ ] The rating I'm reading is the flag-flying figure, not the bare-pole one.
• [ ] The rating and the zone are on the same basis (both Eder's map, or both converted to the same code edition).
• [ ] The flag I plan to fly is no bigger than the one the rating assumes.
• [ ] I've allowed for my site: open exposure, hilltop, beachfront or salt air.
• [ ] The quote names the model, height, base width, wall thickness and flag-flying rating.
• [ ] I know whether my town requires engineering for a permit, and what wind figure it uses.
• [ ] There's a plan for storms. Many makers advise taking the flag down in severe weather.

Common questions

Is a higher wind rating always better? It's always stronger, but not always necessary. A Hurricane-series pole in Denver is more pole than the site needs. Match the rating to the zone, then add margin for exposure if your site is unusually open.

My pole is rated 90 mph, and a website says my town's wind speed is 115. Is my pole too weak? Not necessarily. Check which basis each number is on. A 115 mph figure from an ASCE 7-10 or later map is an "ultimate" speed, and it converts to roughly 90 mph on the older nominal basis. If both numbers are on the same basis and the rating is lower, then yes, the pole is undersized.

Should I take the flag down in a storm? When severe weather is forecast, it's sensible. Concord American Flagpole's wind page advises removing flags during severe weather events, and a pole without a flag sees far less load.