A tropical storm named Dolly formed over the Atlantic on Thursday, just two days after the death of country music icon Dolly Parton at age 80, prompting forecasters nationwide to clarify that the timing was "purely coincidental."

"The name Dolly replaced Diana after the 1990 hurricane season and was first used in 1996," the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said in a statement. The center explained that Atlantic storm names are drawn from six rotating lists prepared years in advance by the World Meteorological Organization, and that Dolly was already fourth on the official 2026 list — meaning the name was assigned by rotation rather than in response to current events. The naming convention, adopted for Atlantic storms in 1953 to make hazard communication faster and less ambiguous than tracking storms by coordinates, recycles the six lists on a fixed schedule, and names are retired only when a storm proves so deadly or costly that reuse would be considered insensitive — the very process by which Dolly entered the rotation as Diana's replacement. The name has since been attached to several Atlantic storms, including 2008's Hurricane Dolly, which made landfall in southern Texas, and 2020's short-lived Tropical Storm Dolly, which remained over open water.

The explanation did little to calm social media users, who were sent into a tailspin by the improbable timing.

"You've reached peak fame when the NHC has to issue a clarifying statement about a hurricane with the same name," the popular X account @zerofoxgiven21 wrote.

Another X user offered a different take: "Even in death she's working 9 to 5."

Historian Richard Samuelson raised the possibility of yet another coincidence, asking his followers: "And it might hit on 9/5?"

Meteorologist Ryan Hall wrote that although the name had been selected long before the 80-year-old Parton's death, it "still felt right to pull up the satellite and just watch it for a minute."

Others were quick to take note of the storm's projected trajectory. Law professor and journalist Kate Klonick joked: "If Hurricane Dolly takes out Mar-a-Lago, we really do need to make her a saint, right?"

Meteorologists noted, however, that the relatively weak Dolly was moving rapidly westward and was not expected to reach Florida. Under the six-year rotation, the name Dolly is scheduled to come up again in 2032, unless the current storm becomes destructive enough for the WMO to retire it.

"You know Dolly Parton was a beloved icon," Florida meteorologist Matt Devitt posted Thursday, "when even the National Hurricane Center has to remind people why they had to use the name."