Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Staying close to the ground
NEW YORK — The beloved balloons flew, but lower than usual, in a windy Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade after an anxious weather watch.
Wind had threatened to ground the giant inflated characters. But officials announced less than an hour before Thursday’s start time that the balloons could fly, if in a down-to-earth way.
As the parade continued — even while city emergency officials sent out a public alert about wind gusts — handlers struggled with some giant balloons and pulled them close to the ground. Meanwhile, wind did keep giant balloons out of Philadelphia’s Thanksgiving Day parade.
The Macy’s parade balloons might have been lowered, but Susan Koteen’s spirits weren’t. She has traveled from Florida three years in a row to see the parade.
“We love it. Because it’s exciting, it’s patriotic, and it just — it warms your heart,” she said.
Spectators lined up a half-dozen deep along the route on a gusty fall day, with leaves and confetti swirling in the wind.
A Green Eggs and Ham balloon joined the lineup, Smokey Bear returned for the first time since 1993, and spectators got to see new versions of favorites Snoopy and SpongeBob SquarePants.
A smaller new balloon, Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama’s Love Flies Up to the Sky, and two star-shaped balloons ultimately didn’t make the lineup because of tears and stress from inflation before the parade, Macy’s said. A giant Ronald McDonald balloon also tore before the parade and was pulled out midway through, the company said. The McDonald’s character had a visibly deflated leg.
Macy’s spokesman Orlando Veras called the parade “a fantastic event despite these minor challenges.”
During the middle of the parade, the wind was 13 mph with gusts up to 32 mph, according to the National Weather Service.
City rules require balloons to be grounded if sustained wind exceeds 23 mph and gusts exceed 34 mph. The balloons have been grounded only once for weather-related reasons, in 1971.
On Thursday, in a windy spot near the start of the 2.5-mile route, a Nutcracker balloon knocked into a handler, who fell down but then continued along. A Grinch balloon touched some trees as it passed a corner, drawing an “ooh!” from the crowd.
To parade attendee Kate O’Connor, the wind was “scary, especially around the corners — they’re like wind tunnels.”
It was still cool to see the balloons up close, “but they’re really meant to be seen from underneath,” said the resident of Newtown, Conn., who attends the parade every other year with her daughter, Megan, 8.
Joanna Mammen and her family traveled from Bradford County in northern Pennsylvania to revisit the parade she attended every year while growing up in the Bronx.
“My favorite float, as a kid, was Santa Claus,” said Mammen, 69. “Most of the other floats from that time, the kids these days wouldn’t even recognize. But it’s a beautiful tradition, to come out and experience the crowd.”
The parade, one of the city’s most popular events, features about 8,000 marchers, two dozen floats, entertainers and marching bands, ending with an appearance from Santa Claus.
Meanwhile, wintry weather temporarily loosened its grip across much of the U.S. just in time for Thanksgiving, but travelers were expecting heavy snow and blizzard conditions in some areas as they made plans to return home.
The wind, ice and snow that tied up major highways and airports Tuesday and Wednesday largely let up Thursday, with a notable exception in California, where the main north-south Interstate 5 was shut down in Southern California as heavy snow blanketed the region. The southbound lanes were later reopened.
The National Weather Service predicted things could get dicey — if not impassable — for holiday travelers’ trips home. Forecasters warned against travel tonight through Saturday night in a stretch of country from northeast Wyoming to northwest South Dakota because of expected blizzard conditions.
The next storm system was expected to drop up to 2 feet of additional snow from the Sierra Nevada to the central and northern Rockies as it rolls across a large area of the western and central U.S.
“Instead of telling you the whole spiel of when not to drive, we think it’s easier to give the advice of just staying home this weekend,” said a tweet from the National Weather Service in Reno. “It’ll be a mess out there and we want everyone to enjoy their holiday weekend.”
In California, authorities grappling with the second closing of Interstate 5 in three days suggested alternative routes Thursday.
Long stretches of two interstate highways in northern Arizona’s high country also were expected to be closed between late Thursday and early today because of expected heavy snowfall.
High wind also caused power failures in parts of the country, which crews scrambled to address Thursday.
About 40 flights at Salt Lake City International Airport were experiencing delays averaging about 25 minutes around midday Thursday. Spokeswoman Nancy Volmer said some of those may have been related to weather in other cities. Los Angeles and Denver also had a high number of delays, according to the live-tracking website FlightAware.