A Little Weather Trivia...!

Here is something you may not know, but it just might come in handy someday. Never can tell!

There are a bunch of unusual ways you can track what's happening in the economy.

And one of the more popular informal measures is the so-called " The Waffle House Index" — an indicator that is actually unofficially used by FEMA.

Here's the gist of it: Waffle House restaurants notoriously stay open during natural disasters. So if the diner closes during an event, that suggests it was a really bad natural disaster with devastating effects on the economy. And on the flip side, if it stays open and serving a full menu, damage was relatively limited.

As a historical reference point: after 2011's Hurricane Irene, 22 Waffle Houses lost power in North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware. Only one wasn't open by the Wednesday after the storm passed through — a particularly hard hit location in coastal Virginia.

"If you get [to a place where a disaster hit] and the Waffle House is closed? That's really bad," said FEMA administrator Craig Fugate back in 2011.

As of Friday, 8:01 a.m. ET, Waffle House's official twitter account tweeted that 25 restaurants had been closed across Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina amid Hurricane Matthew.

It's always nice to know how some of these weather predictions get made, and I guess that now we have a better idea...right?

Coffee out on the patio again today!