By New York Post (U.S.) | Created at 2024-11-23 18:25:40 | Updated at 2024-11-23 20:26:18
2 hours ago
Mother Nature may rain on NYC’s parade.
A storm expected to strike throughout the Northeast threatens to put a damper on the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
While the forecast for Thursday morning so far calls for clear skies, the storm system may arrive ahead of schedule, FOX Weather meteorologist Cody Braud told The Post.
“There is 100% going to be a system knocking on our door, we just don’t quite know the timing yet,” Braud said.
Either way, it’s going to be chilly along the route through Midtown Manhattan, with temperatures Thursday expected to reach a high of just 44 degrees under cloudy skies.
The early forecast showed visibility and wind were not expected to hinder the festivities, which kick off at 8:30 a.m. at West 77th Street and Central Park West.
Travel leading up to Turkey Day will be best on Monday and Wednesday, forecasters predict, as a storm system is set to move through the northern states on Tuesday.
On the West Coast, early Thanksgiving travel will be made messy with heavy rain, gusty winds mountain snow, especially in Portland, Oregon, and San Francisco. The region was soaked this past week by a “bomb cyclone,” that left hundreds of thousands without power and killed at least two people.
Post-feast travel will be trickier for many across the Northeast and Great Lakes regions thanks to a storm that could bring showers to the coast and potentially a white Black Friday inland.
“I would plan for a really bad travel day Friday, because that low is likely going to be just offshore, bringing strong winds, rain, probably snow,” Braud noted.
But there’s a silver lining, he said.
“This potential parade of systems that could bring more precipitation — one or two inches of rain — each time, would greatly assist us in hopefully getting out of this drought.”
New York City is under an ongoing drought warning, its first in over 20 years, despite much-needed rain that fell on Thursday. The region is still nearly 8 inches short of its normal rainfall total for the year.
Saturday and Sunday should bring better travel days, experts advised.
Nearly 80 million travelers will head 50 miles or more over the holiday stretch — 72 million by car, AAA predicts. That’s 1.3 million more travelers on the road than last year.
Air travel is expected to reach new heights, as well. More than 5.8 million people will board domestic flights, up 2% from last year and nearly 11% from 2019.
