Waffle House shuttering Tampa locations in rare bellwether indicating Hurricane Milton will be severe, dangerous storm

The Saffir-Simpson Wind Scale has nothing on the Waffle House Index.

Beloved Southern breakfast mainstay Waffle House announced it will close dozens of Florida locations in Hurricane Milton’s path in an unorthodox — yet surprisingly accurate — indicator of the storm’s expected severity known as the “Waffle House Index.”

“Our #whindex status maps reflect our closures as of 2pm today in advance of #HurricaneMilton. More updates to come. Please stay safe,” the chain wrote in a post on its official X account alongside maps showing closed locations in Tampa and Fort Myers represented by red dots.

Waffle House shared its store closure map ahead of Hurricane Milton’s arrival, showing dozens of locations closing in the Tampa and Fort Myers, Florida, area, which has come to signify a dangerous storm is approaching. Waffle House

The Category 4 hurricane is expected to make landfall on the west coast of Florida after dark on Wednesday, bringing potentially catastrophic sustained winds of 145 mph. Millions have fled the state in one of the largest evacuations in the state’s history.

The chain’s 1,600 locations dot much of the American South, from the mid-Atlantic to Florida and covering large swaths of the Gulf Coast area.

But the restaurant has a reputation for staying open — albeit sometimes with limited menu offerings — no matter what Mother Nature cooks up.

Even in rare instances where its restaurants do close, such as during Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the eateries endeavor to quickly re-open to give hungry patrons in storm zones a taste of normalcy — with a side of waffles and grits.

The restaurants are so reliably open that the iconic illuminated black-and-yellow signs signal to passing motorists that a forecasted storm may not be as worrisome as predicted.

The storied chain — with 1,600 locations dotting the American Southeast — has gotten a reputation for staying open in all but the most severe weather. Malcolm Denemark/Florida Today part of the USA TODAY Network / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

When the signs are switched off, however, it indicates a truly severe weather event is on the horizon.

“If you get there and the Waffle House is closed?” FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate is quoted in a blog post by the company. “That’s really bad.  That’s where you go to work.”

Fugate is credited with conceiving the Waffle House Index in 2004 while seeking out a hot meal after surveying damage left by Hurricane Charley. He quickly realized Waffle House was the only option.

The concept for the Waffle House Index came about in 2004 when a FEMA team surveying the damage from Hurricane Charley noticed Waffle House was the only restaurant open in many storm-ravaged areas. AP

As his team worked following the storm, they found again and again that Waffle Houses were often the lone open eateries in storm-ravaged areas, even those that had lost water and power.

They later collated the open or closed status of the restaurants on a color-coded map distributed by the team to give officials and members of the public an at-a-glance reference showing where the storm had done the most damage, CBS reported.

Green means business as usual, yellow means open with limited menu options and the dreaded red dots mean a location is closed — indicating significant storm damage or unsafe conditions.

Based on the plethora of red dots on the current Waffle House Index map shared by the company Wednesday, refuge-seekers may have to wait until Milton has passed through before filling up on sausage biscuits and omelets.