Kevin Myatt is The Roanoke Times' weather columnist.

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It's hard to believe, but it's been 33 months -- nearly three years -- since we've watched a tropical system approach with the expectation of a possible hurricane landfall on a U.S. shoreline.

Hurricane Dolly is expected to come onshore today near Brownsville, Texas.

Not since Hurricane Wilma roared toward the southwest coast of Florida on Oct. 24, 2005, has there been more than a day's preparation for a potential hurricane landfall in the United States.

After 10 hurricanes made U.S. landfall in 2004 and 2005, only one has since. Hurricane Humberto came ashore last year near the Texas-Louisiana border, but there wasn't any time to anticipate it -- Humberto unexpectedly intensified from tropical depression to Category 2 hurricane in about 20 hours.

Dolly may come ashore on the Mexico side of the border, but even if it does, Brownsville could get pounded by the northern eye wall and a storm surge.

The least-impact location for landfall would be Kenedy County, Texas, between Brownsville and Corpus Christi. Only about 400 people live in that county amid almost 2,000 square miles. Category 3 Hurricane Bret hit there in 1999, and property damage was minimal because there's not much property to damage.

In any event, this will be the second scrape with a tropical system for the U.S. in four days, and a new tropical wave coming off the coast of Africa may become the season's fifth named storm.

It looks as if a busy Atlantic tropical season is afoot.