Clarissa, Minnesota
9 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1953 and the latest in 1986. It stands in Clarissa City. It lies in ZIP code area 56440. The Survey maps it on the Clarissa quadrangle. 661 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,322 feet above sea level.
On record in Clarissa
Buildings and businesses the archive holds for this place. Each opens its own page, with the source record it came from.
On the National Register 1 record
Germania Halllisted 1995
Population over time
2 figuresClarissa fell from 681 to 661 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 | 681 | |
| 2020 | 661 | -20 (-3%) |
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
- 1966 USGS Clarissa quadrangle1:24000
- 1986 USGS Brainerd quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
36 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 36 fires within 5 miles of Clarissa between 1992 and 2010, burning about 353 acres in total. None started naturally. 10 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 |
|---|---|
| Debris and open burning | 16 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 10 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 4 |
| Smoking | 3 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 3 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22 June 1997 | Smoking | 1.0 acres | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 9 May 1992 | Equipment and vehicle use | 7.0 acres | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 7 May 1994 | Debris and open burning | 2.0 acres | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 7 May 1994 | Debris and open burning | 2.0 acres | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 31 May 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5.0 acres | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 3 May 1992 | Equipment and vehicle use | 3.0 acres | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 2 May 2007 | Arson/incendiarism | under an acre | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 17 May 2003 | Arson/incendiarism | 12 acres | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
1 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Clarissa: 1 past producer. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Where | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sanders Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer |
Storms near this place
9 since 1996Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Clarissa in 9 storm reports between 1996 and 2024: 4 hail, 3 tornado, 2 thunderstorm wind. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 2022 | Tornado (EF1) | Clarissa | - | Hundreds of trees were uprooted or broken. Several outbuildings lost roofs. The damage pattern in this part of Todd County was very complicated, but ground and aerial surveys revealed a tornado moved through part of Clarissa. Maximum winds were estimated at 90 mph. |
| July 2017 | Tornado (EF0) | Clarissa | - | Several hundred trees were toppled or broken. A few trees landed on power lines. One old barn collapsed, but no other structural damage was noted or reported. |
| July 2015 | Thunderstorm Wind | Clarissa | - | Several trees and power lines were blown down near Clarissa. |
| August 2004 | Tornado (F0) | Clarissa | - | An off-duty police officer witnessed a brief touchdown of a tornado near the intersection of county routes 11 and 14. No damage was reported. |
| June 2003 | Thunderstorm Wind | Clarissa | - | Scattered trees down, including one on a vehicle. |
| June 2024 | Hail | Clarissa | - | no account filed |
| July 2019 | Hail | Clarissa | - | no account filed |
| August 2001 | Hail | Clarissa | - | no account filed |
| July 1996 | Hail | Clarissa | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Browerville | 5.4 miles | 9 | |
| Eagle Bend | 5.4 miles | 9 | |
| Clotho | 9.1 miles | 9 | |
| Bertha | 11.2 miles | 9 | |
| Long Prairie | 11.6 miles | 9 | |
| Gutches Grove | 12.9 miles | 8 | |
| Hewitt | 15.3 miles | 9 | |
| Round Prairie | 15.9 miles | 8 |
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 Clarissa | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2372830 | 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 641242. 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.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
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.





