On Tuesday the legendary and beloved music icon Dolly Parton passed away. On Thursday a tropical disturbance managed to overcome headwinds to become a tropical storm. And the next name on the list of Atlantic storms was, you guessed it, Dolly.
Here’s how this unlikely meteorological coincidence happened.
The Atlantic hurricane season officially runs from June 1 to November 30, but late August through September is a peak time for storm formation. That’s when ocean waters are warmest, providing ample fuel for storm convection. It’s also when the winds that can rip apart a storm are typically at their weakest.
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A remarkably strong El Nino has kept a lid on Atlantic activity so far this season, meaning we’re still toward the beginning of an alphabetical list of storm names for 2026 that was created by the World Meteorological Organization. There are actually six lists that we rotate through each year, and we replace names on the lists when particularly damaging or strong storms cause them to be retired.
In its forecast discussion, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said, “The timing of the use of the name Dolly for this storm is purely coincidental,” an unusual statement about a storm name.
The name “Dolly” has actually been on one of the lists of hurricane names since 1953, the first year that storms were given names based on lists from the NHC—when Dolly Parton was only seven years old. Back then only female names were used. The lists began alternating between male and female names for Atlantic storms in 1979. Dolly had dropped off the lists before that but was added back in 1990 and first used for a storm in 1996. (Fun fact: In the western Pacific, typhoons—which are the same phenomena as hurricanes but go by a different term—are named for national symbols, local animals and other features of affected countries.)
Though Dolly Parton had an enormous effect on people around the world, with efforts that included promoting childhood literacy and funding one of the COVID vaccines, Dolly the storm is expected to have little impact. Wind shear will make it hard for the storm to strengthen and will eventually deconstruct it before it reaches the Leeward Islands.
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