THOSE SUMMER DOLDRUMS.

Official Washington goes on vacation, and most of Europe takes things even easier than they normally do, but those news holes still have to be filled.

As people around the world mourn the death of music icon Dolly Parton, the National Hurricane Center is monitoring a tropical wave that could become the fourth-named storm of the 2026 Atlantic hurricane season. The pre-season determined name? Dolly.

The wave, far out in the Atlantic, could be named by Aug. 27, but the name "Dolly" was chosen 30 years ago and is not related to Dolly Parton's death on Aug. 25. The wave has a 70% chance of becoming a tropical storm or depression, according to the hurricane center, part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

There are no plans to skip over the name "Dolly" if the expected tropical storm forms, the hurricane center told USA TODAY. The center does not control the naming of tropical storms or when the names are used, its website states. "Instead a strict procedure has been established by an international committee of the World Meteorological Organization."

It's an "astounding coincidence" at a time when people from all walks of life are remembering her music and charitable legacies, wrote Roger Edwards, a long-time Dolly Parton fan and meteorologist who retired from NOAA in 2025, in a tribute posted on a social media account.

Anything to make hurricane season relevant when it's the end of August with four possible named storms by the 27th.

There are likely other famous people passing a day or so before a tropical depression gains that person's name.  Around our family, Dolly Parton's name frequently came up in cribbage games when there weren't many points in the crib.  Outside the Beltway's James Joyner notes, "She was truly one of a kind," and Margaret "University Diaries" concludes, "Her voice had the sun of America in it."  R.I.P.