 Roughly 24 hours after landfall , the center of Brenda passed directly over the city of Mérida , Yucatán . By this time , a strong ridge over southern Texas and northern Mexico caused the storm to take an unusual southwest turn . Later on August 20 , the center of Brenda moved into the Gulf of Mexico , specifically the Bay of Campeche . Once back over water , Brenda began to quickly intensify , attaining hurricane status later that day . The next day , a well @-@ defined eye had developed and the storm attained its peak intensity as a high @-@ end Category 1 hurricane with winds of 90 mph ( 140 km / h ) and a minimum pressure of 977 mbar ( hPa ; 28 @.@ 85 inHg ) . Around this time , the tropical storm force winds extended out 150 mi ( 240 km ) to the north and 75 mi ( 121 km ) to the south . The storm made landfall later that day near Ciudad del Carmen , Mexico at this intensity , becoming the first hurricane to strike the region on record . After moving inland , Brenda rapidly weakened to a depression by the morning of August 22 and dissipated later that day . 
