The criteria for opening a Warming Center

During a cold snap Dec. 1-2, the City of Sonoma and County of Sonoma opened an Extreme Weather Warming Center at the Sonoma Valley Veteran’s Building.

What’s the criteria for opening that kind of shelter?

The City and County follow these guidelines for evaluating warming center openings.

• Three (3) consecutive nights with overnight forecasted lows by the National Weather Service (NWS) of below 32 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Three (3) consecutive nights of rainfall or snowfall with major or extreme risk levels as determined by the NWS.
• A combination of the Extreme Cold Weather Events defined above.

This criterion is very similar to the one being used by the City of Santa Rosa.

The Dec. 1-2 opening  followed a freeze warning issued by the National Weather Service and Sonoma County Health Department. Sonoma’s warming center served six people on Thursday night and four people Friday night.

The City intends to continue partnering with the Sonoma County Department of Emergency Management to co-open and operate an emergency warming center at the Sonoma Veteran’s Memorial Building when conditions dictate.

The City is in direct communication with our local homeless services providers, who will be notified as soon as possible after a decision to open a warming center is made so that they can assist with getting the word out to their clients. In addition, the City will post an announcement at www.sonomacity.org and on the front door of City Hall when/if the Warming Center opens in the future.

Individuals who sign up to receive emergency update notifications will be automatically notified via email. Sign up for auto notifications at www.sonomacity.org/emergency-updates/.