 Hurricane Henri was a rare tropical cyclone that entered the Gulf of Mexico without having made landfall ; it was the second of four times this occurred during the 20th century . The eighth named storm and fifth hurricane of the 1979 Atlantic hurricane season , it formed on September 14 in the northwestern Caribbean Sea . Throughout much of its duration , Henri moved erratically and initially maintained a general westward track . On September 16 it attained tropical storm status , and a day later it reached hurricane status . By two days later , after experiencing hostile conditions , Henri weakened to tropical depression status as it turned to the northeast , and on September 24 it merged with a frontal low in the northeast Gulf of Mexico . Due to its slow and erratic motion , the hurricane forced evacuations along the Mexican coastline . Its remnants brought rainfall and flooding to the Florida Panhandle . 
