Happy Thanksgiving! Today is the day where families and friends get together to eat turkey, give thanks, and gather around to watch the country’s most famous parade. However, according to AP News, there was a chance that the famous giant balloons of the Macy’s Day Thanksgiving Parade would not fly in NYC today due to high winds. The website reports that parade officials, as well as the NYPD, have been “keeping an eye on wind gauges along the 2.5-mile (4-kilometer) parade route that snakes through Manhattan.”
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James O’Neill, the NYPD Commissioner, said earlier that he was “optimistic” that the 93rd installment of the annual parade would still kick off at 9 pm EST as planned, however, the news reported that “officials won’t make a decision about whether the balloons will fly in the parade until right before it starts.”
Thankfully, it appears things are in order and the balloons will be flying today, but just lower as a result of wind.
Since the parade’s inception, the balloons have only been grounded once and that was back in 1971, also due to the weather. Currently, there are 16 balloons waiting to be flown, but they “could be brought down to float at a lower level or taken out of the parade” due to what the National Weather Service is predicting could be sustained winds of up to 24 miles per hour with gusts up to 40 and the rules states that the balloons need to be brought down if sustained winds top 23 miles per hour and the gusts top 34.
AP News reports that 8,000 people are expected to march in the parade, and the event will include big-name performers such as Billy Porter, Celine Dion, Ciara, Kelly Rowland, and Idina Menzel. Some of the balloons fans can expect to see today are Olaf from Frozen, Astronaut Snoopy, Pikachu, Power Rangers Mighty Morphin Red Ranger, SpongeBob SquarePants, Dreamworks Trolls, Ronald McDonald, and more.
Do you plan to watch the parade this morning? Which balloons are your favorite? What performances are you most excited about? Tell us in the comments!
The 2019 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade begins today at 9 a.m. EST.
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NEW YORK, NEW YORK – NOVEMBER 23: Tom Turkey by Macy's appears during 97th Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on November 23, 2023 in New York City. Tom Turkey, the longest running title float in the Parade, is also the only self-propelled float. (Photo by Eugene Gologursky/Getty Images for Macy's, Inc.)
