Despite wind, the show goes on

Flying low through gray skies, Snoopy swooped down Broadway on Thursday, his aviator goggles slick with rain.

Fans lining the parade route had waited in the soggy cold, wondering whether the inflatable stars of the 80th annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade would be grounded by strong gusts of wind.

Then the beagle bobbed into view.

“There’s Snoopy!” shouted a man peering up 8th Avenue from 34th Street.

The city’s Office of Emergency Management, which had closely monitored the weather, gave the giant balloons the go-ahead just before the parade kicked off -- but handlers reined them in tightly, holding them at about 17 feet above the street, office spokesman Jarrod Bernstein said.

Some flew even lower. Scooby-Doo’s knees rested on his handlers’ shoulders. Super Grover’s nose nearly scraped the ground.

Parade watchers, huddling under umbrellas, cheered and waved as dancers twirled through the rain, their ponytails dripping.

“We were freezing cold and wet from sunrise to sunset,” sang Julie Andrews, riding on the Mother Goose float. “But the show must go on.”

And it did.

The parade featured 33 floats with themes as varied as Charlotte’s Web and Barbie, marching bands from across the country, and celebrities including singers Barry Manilow, Gloria Estefan and Ciara.

Chelsea Cooksey, 28, of Manhattan, tapped her feet to the music to keep herself warm. Her jeans were soaked up to her knees. But she was thrilled to see the oversized characters floating down Broadway.

“The balloons are half the fun,” she said.

Two-year-old Carolina Flores, watching from her father’s shoulders, seemed to agree.

“Wow!” she cried, spotting a very big Big Bird.

The air was a chilly 41 degrees, and winds from the northeast blew at 12 mph, gusting up to 21 mph, according to the National Weather Service. According to city guidelines, the parade’s big balloons must be grounded if winds reach 23 mph with gusts stronger than 34 mph.

Those rules were adopted after 45-mph winds in 1997 blew a Cat in the Hat balloon into a metal pole. A woman hit by falling debris suffered a fractured skull and was in a coma for nearly a month.

Last year, the ropes of an M&M; balloon snagged on a street lamp near Times Square. Two sisters, ages 11 and 26, were injured.

A city task force determined that the balloon was traveling down a street much narrower than parade guidelines permitted.

This year, the wind caused problems only for the small red balloons released during the parade’s grand finale. Instead of soaring to the sky, some ended up caught in the antlers of Santa’s reindeer.