Rain forecast for Thanksgiving, but Macy's parade will go on
The skies ignored the pleas of "Don’t rain on my parade."
It will be a wet Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in Manhattan, and a wet holiday throughout Long Island.
There will be sustained winds of 10 to 17 miles per hour, with gusts up to 25 miles per hour on Long Island and 20 miles per hour in Manhattan.
But "they can still do the balloons," said National Weather Service meteorologist Jay Engle.
City regulations prohibit any "giant character balloon" flying with sustained winds of 23 mph and gusts exceeding 34 mph, a Macy's spokesperson said by email early Thursday.
No incidents were reported in the parade area about an hour before the event's scheduled 8:30 a.m. start, a New York City police spokesman said.
The Long Island Rail Road this morning added six extra westbound trains to Manhattan — leaving Babylon, Ronkonkoma and Farmingdale between 6:15 a.m. and 7:27 a.m. — to handle extra demand from parade-goers.
It added nine extra trains returning to Long Island — four to Babylon, three to Ronkonkoma, one to Farmingdale and one to Huntington — leaving Grand Central or Penn Station between 11:20 a.m. and 12:51 p.m.
Otherwise, the LIRR will be on a weekend schedule. Go to the MTA website for more information and timetables. There were no major delays early Thursday on LIRR trains, Metropolitan Transit Authority spokesman Lucas Bejarano said.
Today’s rain, which will be steady or moderate, will move out between 2 and 4 p.m., Engle said. Highs will be in the low 50s. Expect about three-quarters of an inch of rain.
Tonight will be breezy and colder, with lows in the mid-30s.
It will be dry Friday, "with lots of sunshine but clouds late in the day," Engle said. Temperatures will be cooler, with highs in the mid- and upper 40s. Temperatures will dip to the upper 20s to lower 30s. With winds of 10 miles per hour and gusts up to 20 miles per hour, it will feel like the low to mid-20s, Engle said.
Saturday and Sunday will be dry but chilly, with highs Saturday in the low to mid-40s and highs Sunday around 40. On Monday, highs will be in the low 40s.
David Olson covers health care. He has worked at Newsday since 2015 and previously covered immigration, multicultural issues and religion at The Press-Enterprise in Southern California.
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