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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.

Petersburg within Nelson County

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

Population over time

2 figures

Petersburg 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.

YearPeople Change
2010192
2020162-30 (-16%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

5 surveys from 7 printed sheets

Matched 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.

Fires near this place

9 since 1992

Regional 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/incendiarism8
Debris and open burning1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
30 June 2004Arson/incendiarism1.0 acresFort Totten AgencyTH1710
6 May 2005Arson/incendiarism1.0 acresFort Totten Agency333
5 May 1998Arson/incendiarismunder an acreFort Totten Agency303714
3 April 1992Arson/incendiarism60 acresFort Totten Agencynot named
23 April 1996Arson/incendiarismunder an acreFort Totten AgencyMS1616
21 April 1998Arson/incendiarismunder an acreFort Totten AgencyLD2304
19 April 1993Arson/incendiarism1.0 acresFort Totten Agencynot named
13 October 1995Arson/incendiarism1.0 acresFort Totten AgencyTH1716

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Nelson County

Storms near this place

34 since 1996

Regional 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
June 2000Flash FloodPetersburg$2,000,000After 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 2025HailPetersburg-Largest hail was quarter size.
June 2022Thunderstorm WindPetersburg-A semi truck-trailer combination was flipped on Highway 2. Time estimated based on radar and nearby wind sensor reports.
July 2022Thunderstorm WindPetersburg-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 2020Thunderstorm WindPetersburg-Several 3 to 5 inch diameter branches were blown down.
June 2018Tornado (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 2016Thunderstorm WindPetersburg-A truck was blown off of U. S. Highway 2 and a large tree limb was blown down.
June 2016Thunderstorm WindPetersburg-Siding and panels were torn off a grain elevator.
July 2015Thunderstorm WindPetersburg-Numerous large three to five inch diameter tree branches were blown down in shelterbelts. Crops were flattened over a broad area.
August 2014Funnel CloudPetersburg-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 2012Thunderstorm WindPetersburg-Strong winds flattened corn crops.
August 2007Thunderstorm WindPetersburg-Large branches were torn down and several houses lost shingles between the communities of Niagara and Petersburg.
August 2007HailPetersburg-The largest hail ranged in size from 1.75 to 2 inches.
June 2005Heavy RainPetersburg-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 2003Thunderstorm WindPetersburg-8 inch diameter tree limbs were broken.
July 2016HailPetersburg-no account filed
August 2007HailPetersburg-no account filed
July 2007HailPetersburg-no account filed
August 2007HailPetersburg-no account filed
June 2006HailPetersburg-no account filed
July 2003HailPetersburg-no account filed
July 2003HailPetersburg-no account filed
July 2003HailPetersburg-no account filed
June 2002HailPetersburg-no account filed
June 2001HailPetersburg-no account filed
July 2001HailPetersburg-no account filed
June 2000HailPetersburg-no account filed
June 2000HailPetersburg-no account filed
June 2000Thunderstorm WindPetersburg-no account filed
June 2000HailPetersburg-no account filed
June 2000HailPetersburg-no account filed
July 2000HailPetersburg-no account filed
September 1996HailPetersburg-no account filed
August 1996HailPetersburg-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Nelson County

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 PlaceDistance Sheets
Michigan6.2 miles7
Dahlen10.8 miles8
Whitman12.0 miles7
Mapes12.0 miles8
Pelto15.7 miles7
Lakota17.9 miles8
Harrisburg (historical)18.0 miles11
McVille19.4 miles10

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 PetersburgAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2310139The 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.