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With winds expected to be at the threshold of 34 mph Thanksgiving morning, odds of the famed Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade going according to plan would typically not be very good. But Gambling911.com has placed odds that the parade will go forward at 1-4, good odds and here is why:
Local WCBS weatherman Lonnie Quinn gave his daring prediction Wednesday evening.
“There is a decline in wind speed throughout the day,” he said. “They (the floats) will be a little lower to the ground but I think they will fly.”
That said, it will be brutally cold with wind chill temperatures in the teens in the wake of a storm that caused hundreds of airline delays throughout the Eastern US.
New safety measures were imposed in 2006 to prevent accidents and balloon related injuries. And, indeed, such injuries have occurred. In 1997, winds drove a Cat in the Hat balloon into a metal pole. The ensuing damage left a woman in a coma for almost a month before she recovered. In 2005, an M&M balloon knocked over a streetlight that injured two sisters.
Wind measurement devices have since been installed to alert parade organizers to any unsafe conditions. Also, parade officials implemented a measure to keep the balloons closer to the ground during windy conditions.
- Jordan Bach, Gambling911.com
