Definition of "cooling center"

[T]he availability of shelter from the heat at a city-sponsored "cooling center" made sense. With temperatures soaring into the 100s it was a move to prevent the situations that led to multiple heat deaths in 1980. […] [T]he cooling center, provided at minimal cost to taxpayers thanks to volunteer effort, provided a trial run for the participants in organizing such an enterprise – which could save lives if such a heat wave returns.

1983 July 26, “‘Cooling center’ useful”, in Ed Corson, editor, The Macon News, number 207, Macon, Ga.: Edmund E. Olson, page 10A, column 3

Police from around the city also were given lists of senior citizens that phone bank workers had been unable to reach. In between regular assignments, police were supposed to visit those addresses and check to see if the residents needed advice or transportation to a cooling center. Eight 24-hour cooling centers were open Sunday.

1995 July 31, “Chicago sweats out heat emergency under new guidelines”, in The Illinois Times, Chicago edition, volume 88, number 20, Munster, Ind.: Howard Publications, section B (Local), page B-1, column 5

The Peter Cardella Center is part of the network of 500 or so public facilities that the city activates as "cooling centers" when the heat index creeps up to 95 for two days in a row, or to 100 for any duration at all. […] At the Brooklyn Public Library, many people had come for the pleasant breeze rippling through the lobby. But none, it seemed, had come because the library is an official cooling center.

2010 July 9, Ariel Kaminer, “City critic: Cool air, if you can get to it”, in The New York Times‎, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, archived from the original on 2022-06-17

In Los Angeles, Aram Sahakian, director of the city's emergency management department, is trying to make cooling centers as virus-proof as possible. When temperatures hit the low 90s at the end of April, Mr. Sahakian's office opened five cooling centers, but under strict conditions: Anyone trying to get in had their temperature taken. People were then given masks, which they had to wear at all times, as well as gloves and sanitizer.

2020 May 6, Christopher Flavelle, “Coronavirus makes cooling centers risky, just as scorching weather hits”, in The New York Times‎, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, archived from the original on 2025-05-10