Wind may ground parade
Gusts threaten parade balloons amid icy temps
This holiday forecast blows! Paradegoers should bundle up for the city’s coldest Thanksgiving temperatures in 20 years and brace for powerful winds that could ground the high-flying balloons.
Forecasters on Monday predicted sustained winds as high as 25 mph with gusts up to 35 mph — enough to stop the likes of Big Bird, Charlie Brown, The Grinch and Spongebob from soaring down Central Park West and Sixth Avenue.
None of the balloons will be allowed to fly if sustained winds exceed 23 mph and gusts surpass 34 mph, Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade spokesman Orlando Veras told The Post.
But organizers say it’s way too soon to make that call.
“It is too early to make any determinations as to the flight of the balloons,” Veras said. “In the morning, just prior to the start of the event, Macy’s and the NYPD will make a final determination on the flight of the giant balloons, based on the current weather data available from the parade route and a number of additional sources.”
Workers could fly the balloons at a lower height if wind is too powerful, according to Scott Gastel a spokesman for the Department of Transportation, which works with the NYPD on setting balloon height limits.
“DOT engineers are in place along the parade route, using anemometers, and they work with NYPD to determine that balloons are flown at safe levels,” Gastel said. “NYPD communicates as needed to balloon pilots if adjustments are necessary.”
If the balloons are grounded, it would be the first time since 1971 — when 40 mph winds hit the parade.
In 1997, a woman was left in a coma when a powerful gust of wind caused the Cat in the Hat balloon to strike a streetlight, which fell and hit her head.
The gusty conditions Thursday will also make for arctic wind chills. Temperatures are expected to plunge into the low 20s, but it will feel more like the teens during the coldest projected Thanksgiving on record since 1996.
“It’s going to be brutal out there,” said AccuWeather senior meteorologist Dave Dombek. “It’s going to be cold. Very, very cold.”
He added, “If things stay as is, this will be the third-coldest Thanksgiving in New York history” — with the most frigid one hitting 19 degrees in 1901.
Overall, Thursday will be dry and sunny with a low temperature of 21 degrees and a high of 29, according to Dombek. with a windchill factor of 10 to 16 degrees.