New Atlantic Storm Name Is a Timely One

UPDATE Aug 27, 2026 12:55 PM CDT

Dolly is now officially a storm, specifically a tropical storm. The Miami Herald reports that Dolly formed in the Atlantic and is headed to the Caribbean, though it's not expected to cause much of a fuss: Forecasts show it will peter out into a tropical wave before reaching the Leeward Islands early Sunday. The storm is still likely to deliver heavy rain to the Leewards, as well as Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic. The name was just a fluke, as explained below.

Aug 26, 2026 1:00 PM CDT

Fans mourning Dolly Parton may soon hear her name somewhere unexpected: attached to the next Atlantic storm. The World Meteorological Organization picked "Dolly" decades ago as part of a rotating list of storm names, and it's next in line. The National Hurricane Center says a tropical wave near Cape Verde has about a 70% chance of developing into a tropical storm or depression, which would make it the fourth named storm of the season.

The Washington Post, which calls the timing a "rather weird coincidence," flags this Parton quote: "The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain." The name Dolly was first associated with a storm in 1996, when it replaced Diana; the Tennessean reports it has since been attached to storms in 2008 and 2020.