Macy's Thanksgiving parade is perhaps not a nightmare after all

Snoopy, Charlie Brown and even the Grinch may have something to be grateful for this year.

It seems that Thursday's winds will not be strong enough to put the balloons on the ground during Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade – although the margins are very thin.

Forecasts are sustained winds of 12 to 25 mph and gusts of 35 mph. If sustained winds exceed 23 mph and gusts exceed 34 mph, none of the 16 character balloons and nearly 30 heritage balloons will be allowed to climb the 2.65 miles of Central Park West, Sixth Avenue and West 34th Street.

"The level will be very close to this threshold, probably just below it," said Dave Dombek, Senior Meteorologist at AccuWeather.

The parade, a tradition since 1924, will feature 1,500 dancers and cheerleaders, nearly 1,000 clowns, Broadway performers, including "Mean Girls" and "My Fair Lady" actors, as well as celebrities. such as John Legend, Kelly Clarkson and Diana Ross.

But they will be cold. The winds will give an even brighter sense of brutality in mid-twenties during what will likely be Turkey's coldest day in the Big Apple for over a century.

The forecast is at the dawn of the record set in 1901, when it was 19 degrees in Central Park. The last time the balloons were stranded because of high winds, it was in 1971.

At the balloon inflation ceremony Wednesday night near the Natural History Museum, New York Police Commissioner James O'Neill announced that the police would closely monitor the winds.

"We will just have to dismount the balloons" if the winds exceed dangerous levels, he said, calling on New Yorkers to "think positively".

Thousands of people strolled through the Upper West Side Museum to spot a giant spongebob, Ronald McDonald and Olaf of "Frozen," while they were filled with "The Frozen". air in anticipation of the festivities of Thanksgiving.