Tropical Storm Dolly formed in the central Atlantic on Thursday, but the National Hurricane Center expects the system to weaken before impacting any landmasses.
The fourth named storm of the season formed from a tropical wave that was originally designated Invest 96L while southwest of the Cabo Verde Islands.
Dolly last had maximum sustained winds of around 40 mph and was reported to be about 1,500 miles east of the Lesser Antilles.
While the storm's formation comes just days before the Atlantic basin hurricane season approaches its climatological peak, Dolly is not expected to be a long-lived tropical cyclone.
The NHC says environmental conditions are expected to deteriorate significantly over the weekend, leading to Dolly falling apart before it reaches the islands.
Hostile conditions are common during what is known as an El Niño phase of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation.
The forecast calls for Dolly to lose its tropical characteristics and dissipate by Monday.
Despite its eventual weakening, forecasters will keep an eye on the system because of its potential to produce heavy rain and gusty winds across the Leeward Islands.
Any rainfall will be welcome news across the Caribbean, where some islands have been dealing with historic drought conditions.
Once past the islands, the system will be monitored for regeneration in the southwest Atlantic, but forecast models consider the odds to be low.
Less than 1% of computer forecast models show Dolly as a trackable entity near Florida - a scenario will continue to be monitored, given the timing of the season's peak and how quickly tropical cyclones can develop in September.
The name "Dolly" has been used to identify storms since the 1950s and was added to the rotation of Atlantic storm names in 1996.
The next name on the 2026 Atlantic hurricane season list is Edouard.
