Petersburg, North Dakota
7 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1953 and the latest in 1993. It stands in Petersburg City. It lies in ZIP code area 58272. The Survey maps it on the Michigan East quadrangle. 162 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,532 feet above sea level.
On record in Petersburg
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
- Petersburg Auditoriumlisted 2025
Population over time
2 figuresPetersburg fell from 192 to 162 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 | 192 | |
| 2020 | 162 | -30 (-16%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
5 surveys from 7 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 Devils Lake quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1956 USGS Devils Lake quadrangle1:250000
- 1971 USGS Michigan East quadrangle1:24000
- 1985 USGS Devils Lake quadrangle1:100000
- 1993 USGS Devils Lake quadrangle1:100000
Fires near this place
9 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 9 fires within 5 miles of Petersburg between 1992 and 2005, burning about 66 acres in total. None started naturally. 8 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 | 8 |
| Debris and open burning | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30 June 2004 | Arson/incendiarism | 1.0 acres | Fort Totten Agency | TH1710 |
| 6 May 2005 | Arson/incendiarism | 1.0 acres | Fort Totten Agency | 333 |
| 5 May 1998 | Arson/incendiarism | under an acre | Fort Totten Agency | 303714 |
| 3 April 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 60 acres | Fort Totten Agency | not named |
| 23 April 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | under an acre | Fort Totten Agency | MS1616 |
| 21 April 1998 | Arson/incendiarism | under an acre | Fort Totten Agency | LD2304 |
| 19 April 1993 | Arson/incendiarism | 1.0 acres | Fort Totten Agency | not named |
| 13 October 1995 | Arson/incendiarism | 1.0 acres | Fort Totten Agency | TH1716 |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
34 since 1996Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Petersburg in 34 storm reports between 1996 and 2025: 20 hail, 10 thunderstorm wind, 1 flash flood, 1 heavy rain. 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 2000 | Flash Flood | Petersburg | $2,000,000 | After 10 to 15 inches of rain fell across portions of east central Nelson county, flash flooding occurred. Part of the road shoulder washed out at the US Highway 2 overpass near Petersburg, reducing the traffic to one lane. Several farmsteads were surrounded by water. 45 percent of the cropland in Nelson county was destroyed. |
| June 2025 | Hail | Petersburg | - | Largest hail was quarter size. |
| June 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Petersburg | - | A semi truck-trailer combination was flipped on Highway 2. Time estimated based on radar and nearby wind sensor reports. |
| July 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Petersburg | - | A large tree was blown down at a farmstead. Report and photo was posted via social media. Time estimated based on radar and nearby wind sensor reports. |
| July 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Petersburg | - | Several 3 to 5 inch diameter branches were blown down. |
| June 2018 | Tornado (EF1) | Petersburg | - | A few snapped or uprooted poplar trees were noted in a shelterbelt north of U. S. Highway 2, west of mile point 239. Large branches were also broken down in various shelterbelts west of Niagara. Peak winds were estimated at 90 mph. |
| June 2016 | Thunderstorm Wind | Petersburg | - | A truck was blown off of U. S. Highway 2 and a large tree limb was blown down. |
| June 2016 | Thunderstorm Wind | Petersburg | - | Siding and panels were torn off a grain elevator. |
| July 2015 | Thunderstorm Wind | Petersburg | - | Numerous large three to five inch diameter tree branches were blown down in shelterbelts. Crops were flattened over a broad area. |
| August 2014 | Funnel Cloud | Petersburg | - | This funnel was one of several brief and weak cold-air or cold-core type funnels which formed throughout the late morning and afternoon hours. |
| August 2012 | Thunderstorm Wind | Petersburg | - | Strong winds flattened corn crops. |
| August 2007 | Thunderstorm Wind | Petersburg | - | Large branches were torn down and several houses lost shingles between the communities of Niagara and Petersburg. |
| August 2007 | Hail | Petersburg | - | The largest hail ranged in size from 1.75 to 2 inches. |
| June 2005 | Heavy Rain | Petersburg | - | Heavy rainfall contributed to a major fiber optic line cut between Lakota and Larimore. Telephone service to most of northeast North Dakota was knocked out. |
| July 2003 | Thunderstorm Wind | Petersburg | - | 8 inch diameter tree limbs were broken. |
| July 2016 | Hail | Petersburg | - | no account filed |
| August 2007 | Hail | Petersburg | - | no account filed |
| July 2007 | Hail | Petersburg | - | no account filed |
| August 2007 | Hail | Petersburg | - | no account filed |
| June 2006 | Hail | Petersburg | - | no account filed |
| July 2003 | Hail | Petersburg | - | no account filed |
| July 2003 | Hail | Petersburg | - | no account filed |
| July 2003 | Hail | Petersburg | - | no account filed |
| June 2002 | Hail | Petersburg | - | no account filed |
| June 2001 | Hail | Petersburg | - | no account filed |
| July 2001 | Hail | Petersburg | - | no account filed |
| June 2000 | Hail | Petersburg | - | no account filed |
| June 2000 | Hail | Petersburg | - | no account filed |
| June 2000 | Thunderstorm Wind | Petersburg | - | no account filed |
| June 2000 | Hail | Petersburg | - | no account filed |
| June 2000 | Hail | Petersburg | - | no account filed |
| July 2000 | Hail | Petersburg | - | no account filed |
| September 1996 | Hail | Petersburg | - | no account filed |
| August 1996 | Hail | Petersburg | - | 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.
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 Petersburg | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2310139 | 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 1030683. 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.




