Weather could knock the wind out of a holiday tradition in New York

Strong wind predicted for today threatens to force SpongeBob SquarePants, Scooby-Doo, Pikachu and other popular balloon characters to sit out the 80th annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in Manhattan.

The forecast calls for wind to possibly surpass 23 mph, the threshold that Macy’s and city officials set as the top sustained speed before larger balloons are pulled out of the parade for safety reasons. In addition, if gusts reach 34 mph, all the big balloons must be grounded.

“Obviously, we’re very disappointed that the forecast isn’t looking good,” Macy’s spokeswoman Elina Kazan said Wednesday. Nevertheless, she said, workers were preparing and hoping for the best.

“We’re inflating our balloons,” she said, referring to the famed parade-eve filling of the balloons on the blocks surrounding the American Museum of Natural History on the Upper West Side. “We are planning to put on a great parade.”

The final decision on whether to fly the 13 giant balloons, including Big Bird, Dora the Explorer and Snoopy, won’t be made until this morning. Rain that began Wednesday night was forecast to hang around throughout the parade -- a real damper for the 3.5 million people expected to line Central Park West and Broadway.

Last year, after an M&M; balloon struck a light pole that fell and injured two people, officials devised the new safety plan that calls for a ban on larger balloons if wind is too strong.

The maximum wind speeds don’t translate into good news based on the forecast for sustained wind of 15 to 25 mph, with gusts up to 30 mph, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Tim Morrin.

Higher gusts are possible in some intersections where a tunnel effect -- from wind blowing between tall buildings, for example -- is present, Morrin said.

“It will likely be a wet and chilly parade,” he said.

The safety protocol calls for seven wind testing stations at intersections along the 2.5-mile parade route to provide up-to-the-minute measurements.

The city also has scrutinized potential obstructions along the parade route and plans to swing overhead light structures, which are movable, to their sides, said Jarrod Bernstein, the spokesman for the city’s Office of Emergency Management.