Waffle House may boast a menu of griddle favorites, but it turns out the restaurant chain has much more to offer than crispy hash browns and fluffy hot cakes, especially during a storm. According to The Associated Press, Waffle House offers a barometer for storm severity for Southerns facing tropical events like hurricanes, known as the Waffle House Index.

What is the Waffle House Index?

Here’s the index’s principal: if a Waffle House in town is open, even if they’re only accepting a handful of diners, Southerners know the storm ahead is a mild one. If a location is closed, then they know they’re likely dealing with an incoming disaster.

The Index was discovered by Craig Fugate, a former Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), twenty years ago, in 2004, CBS News reported. Fugate was on the hunt for something to eat when he observed Hurricane Charley’s heartbreaking effects. Waffle House was the only place open and serving a limited menu at the time, prompting Fugate to think. Could their be a connection?

Fugate and his team looked into it and noticed that other Waffle Houses in neighboring areas affected by the storm were open, even as these communities struggled without power or running water. These locations contributed to a color-coded map Fugate and his team made to help locals determine what the storm hit the hardest. According to the Associated Press, the map now consists of 1,900 locations, concentrated in the Southeast and mid-Atlantic, aiding those facing these storms determine its severity.

Waffle House Index and Hurricane Milton

As per the index, Hurricane Milton, which hits Florida’s west coast this week, is likely to be a severe storms. Locations in the Tampa-area have already closed, with more to likely follow suit.

Hurricane Milton was upgraded back to a Category 5 storm on Tuesday in its pursuit of West Florida, which is predicted to hit Tampa and St. Petersburg directly, which has not happened in decades. The storm comes not even a month after the area was devastated by September’s Hurricane Helene.