Bertha, Minnesota
9 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1953 and the latest in 1986. It stands in Bertha Township. It lies in ZIP code area 56437. The Survey maps it on the Bertha quadrangle. 560 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,391 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresBertha grew from 497 to 560 between 2010 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 497 | |
| 2020 | 560 | +63 (+13%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
6 surveys from 9 printed sheetsMatched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.
- 1953 USGS Brainerd quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1957 USGS Brainerd quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS Brainerd quadrangle1:250000
- 1965 USGS Brainerd quadrangle1:250000
- 1969 USGS Bertha quadrangle1:24000
- 1986 USGS Battle Lake quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
21 since 1995Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 21 fires within 5 miles of Bertha between 1995 and 2019, burning about 230 acres in total. 1 started naturally. 14 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Reported cause | Fires |
|---|---|
| Arson/incendiarism | 14 |
| Debris and open burning | 3 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 2 |
| Natural | 1 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1 |
The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.
| Date | Cause | Size | Reported by | Name on the report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 May 2004 | Arson/incendiarism | 2.5 acres | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 3 May 2003 | Arson/incendiarism | 60 acres | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 2 May 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 4.0 acres | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 2 May 2004 | Arson/incendiarism | 5.0 acres | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 9 April 2005 | Natural | 20 acres | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 30 April 2003 | Arson/incendiarism | 2.0 acres | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 30 April 1995 | Debris and open burning | 10 acres | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 27 April 2003 | Arson/incendiarism | 2.0 acres | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
19 since 1998Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Bertha in 19 storm reports between 1998 and 2025: 11 hail, 5 thunderstorm wind, 2 funnel cloud, 1 tornado. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 2001 | Tornado (F3) | Bertha | $10,000 | NWS Grand Forks damage survey revealed an F3 tornado touch down in Otter Tail County, one mile NW of Parkers Prairie at 1753 CST. It tracked to just southeast of Wrightstown, for an 11 mile path in Otter Tail County. It then continued on for one mile in Todd County where it dissipated 3 WNW of Bertha. Total path length 12 miles. |
| June 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bertha | - | Law enforcement dispatch reported roof blown off of barn near Bertha. |
| July 2020 | Hail | Bertha | - | No major damage around Hewitt or Bertha but a few hail stones of 3/4 of an inch fell in the area, and some small tree limbs blown down between Hewitt and Bertha. |
| July 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bertha | - | A large 10 inch diameter tree was blown down at County Road 24, and 157th Avenue. |
| July 2015 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bertha | - | Several large trees and power lines were blown down near Bertha. |
| August 2010 | Funnel Cloud | Bertha | - | A funnel cloud was reported near County Road 22, and County Road 1. |
| June 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bertha | - | Garage and grain bins destroyed. Estimated windspeed. |
| June 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bertha | - | Roof damage to silo and milking barn. Estimated windspeed. |
| August 2024 | Hail | Bertha | - | no account filed |
| July 2019 | Hail | Bertha | - | no account filed |
| July 2017 | Hail | Bertha | - | no account filed |
| June 2016 | Hail | Bertha | - | no account filed |
| August 2010 | Funnel Cloud | Bertha | - | no account filed |
| July 2008 | Hail | Bertha | - | no account filed |
| June 2005 | Hail | Bertha | - | no account filed |
| June 2005 | Hail | Bertha | - | no account filed |
| August 2003 | Hail | Bertha | - | no account filed |
| April 2002 | Hail | Bertha | - | no account filed |
| June 1999 | Hail | Bertha | - | no account filed |
Nearest settlements
The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.
| Map | Place | Distance | Sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hewitt | 4.3 miles | 9 | |
| Eagle Bend | 7.1 miles | 9 | |
| Clarissa | 11.2 miles | 9 | |
| Staples | 15.6 miles | 9 | |
| Browerville | 16.3 miles | 9 | |
| Clotho | 17.1 miles | 9 | |
| Philbrook | 18.4 miles | 10 | |
| Long Prairie | 22.7 miles | 9 |
Elsewhere
Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.
| Wikipedia article on Bertha | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2186616 | The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0). |
Provenance
This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 639980. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.





