Fly On, Snoopy (And Friends): Macy's Parade Balloons Get All-Clear

By Greg Henderson / NPR

Published November 27, 2013 at 4:27 PM PST

This story was published more than 11 years ago.

Sonic the Hedgehog balloon is inflated Wednesday in New York. The annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, which began in 1924, features giant balloons of characters from popular culture floating above the streets of Manhattan. But high winds could ground Sonic and others on Thursday.

Workers prepare the giant Snoopy balloon before the 87th Annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on Thursday in New York.

Updated at 9:06 a.m. ET on Nov. 28.

The show will go on, giant balloons and all: Snoopy, Spiderman, Buzz Lightyear, Pikachu and 12 other massive balloons will fly in the iconic Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, New York police say.

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Forecasts had called for winds close to the maximum that New York City will allow for the balloons -- some as tall as a five-story building -- to fly over the parade route.

The parade began at 9 a.m. at 77th Street and Central Park West. Some 3 million spectators are braving the wintry weather to watch the event, which is being televised on NBC.

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Based on past experience (which includes a near fatal 1997 Cat in the Hat incident), the city set limits - 23 mph sustained winds, or gusts of 34 mph - above which the balloons can't fly. "New York City could see sustained winds between 15 and 25 mph, with gusts up to 35 mph," said weather.com meteorologist Alan Raymond.

Only once in the annual parade's nearly nine decades, in 1971, have winds and bad weather grounded the balloons.

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But that doesn't mean there haven't been other close calls, the kind that come with helium-filled behemoths each requiring dozens of rope-holding handlers to wrestle them along the 2.65-mile-long Manhattan parade route.

As The New York Timesrecounts: "Felix the Cat once caught fire. Bullwinkle sprung a leak, spewing a blast of helium from his nose yards from the finish line. And giant M&Ms, Sonic the Hedgehog and SpongeBob SquarePants have all crashed into objects on the street."

The most serious incident was in 1997, when the Cat in the Hat balloon struck a light pole in winds gusting above 40 mph. As The Timeswrote back then:

"Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani said yesterday that he had directed top aides and police officials to investigate whether tighter regulations should be applied to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, after an accident in which a six-story-high Cat in the Hat balloon knocked down part of a lamppost, injuring four spectators."