Rain, wind overnight Tuesday and into Wednesday; prepare for travel woes

Thanksgiving travelers should prepare for a wet, windy Wednesday with the potential for a range of headaches on the roads and at airports.

But Thursday's holiday should be much better, particularly if you plan to watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, with a forecast of sunshine and a high of 53.

The National Weather Service predicts the strong gusting winds forecast for Wednesday will die down just enough Thursday to allow the Macy's famous balloons to fly in sunny skies and seasonable temperatures.

Rain and wind, however, will be complicating pre-holiday travel in the region.

"Total rainfall from late Tuesday afternoon through Wednesday morning is expected to be a widespread 1 to 2 inches. This could lead to minor or nuisance flooding, with the heaviest rainfall expected after midnight Tuesday into early Wednesday," the weather service said in a storm report.

There is also a coastal flood advisory for the South Shore overnight Tuesday into Wednesday morning for "vulnerable locations" by the shoreline.

The National Weather Service issued a wind advisory for Suffolk from midnight Tuesday to 10 a.m. Wednesday. forecasting sustained winds of 20 to 30 mph and gusts of up to 45 to 50 mph. By Thanksgiving Day, those winds will be around 18 mph with gusts of up to 39 mph.

The parade rules mandate that sustained winds must remain below 23 mph and that wind gusts don’t exceed 34 mph, according to the NYPD, for the balloons to be airborne during the parade. The parade starts at 8:30 a.m.

As of Tuesday afternoon, there were 99 flight delays and two cancellations reported for John F. Kennedy International Airport, 87 delays for LaGuardia, and 12 for Long Island MacArthur Airport, according to the flight tracking site FlightAware.com.

A gale warning is in effect from Sandy Hook, N.J., to Fire Island Inlet from 6 p.m. Tuesday to 7 a.m. Wednesday and from Jones Inlet east to Shinnecock Bay from 9 p.m. Tuesday to 7 a.m. Wednesday.

North Shore waters of Long Island Sound are under a gale warning from 1 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesday.

By John Valenti

john.valenti@newsday.com

John Valenti, a reporter at Newsday since 1981, has been honored nationally by the Associated Press and Society of the Silurians for investigative, enterprise and breaking news reporting, as well as column writing, and is the author of “Swee'pea,” a book about former New York playground basketball star Lloyd Daniels. Valenti is featured in the Emmy Award-winning ESPN 30-for-30 film “Big Shot.”