A barn with that little slope on the roof would never withstand the snows we have around here, near Spokane. Our outbuildings are almost always built with a 4/12 or 5/12 pitch, so the snow will slide off the sheetmetal roofs. A couple of years ago, we had over 6 feet of snow accumulation and it brought down lots of buildings, including some pole sheds that had been there for years. Lots of others would probably have come down except for the fact that the owners employed people to shovel or blow the snow off them.
But if your barn has done OK for 50 years, it must be strongly enough built for your area. If it was my roof, I would watch for any drifts developing on it, and would consider shoveling off any areas that got deep. If you do get up there, be super careful, since the snow covered metal will be incredibly slick. If you have access to a small snow blower, that might work well. I hate being on metal roofs when they are dry, much less snow covered! And always have a safety line to grab if I start sliding.
As far as heating the inside of the barn goes, I think you would need a lot of heat. And without a vapor barrier, any combustion heat will result in lots of condensation inside that you will have to deal with somehow. If snow will usually slide or creep down the slope of your roof under normal conditions, it might be worth it to heat the place up.
I hope your weather turns warmer and less snowy. It is flat scary to worry if a roof might come down...Good luck!
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Today's Featured Article - Third Brush Generators - by Chris Pratt. While I love straightening sheet metal, cleaning, and painting old tractors, I use every excuse to avoid working on the on the electrics. I find the whole process sheer mystery. I have picked up and attempted to read every auto and farm electrics book with no improvement in the situation. They all seem to start with a chapter entitled "Theory of Electricity". After a few paragraphs I usually close the book and go back to banging out dents. A good friend and I were recently discussing our tractor electrical systems when he stated "I figure it all comes back to applying Ohms Law". At this point
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