Winter storm moves north as Macy's waits to make parade call

Brian K. Sullivan in Bloomberg: The winter storm along the U.S. East Coast that disrupted holiday travel plans and prompted speculation over whether the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade will feature its trademark balloons was forecast to move into southeastern Canada overnight.

The system that brought wind-blown rain to cities including Boston and New York was located just east of northern Maine, according to a National Weather Service advisory at about 10 p.m. yesterday. Light snow that fell along the western side of the Appalachians has been gradually tapering off while heavy rain has moved away from most of the East Coast.

As of 1:20 a.m. New York time today, 14 flights were canceled around the U.S., compared with 307 yesterday, according to FlightAware, a Houston-based airline tracking company. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

Winter storm warnings remained in effect for parts of the central and southern Appalachians, northern Pennsylvania, the Adirondacks in upstate New York and northern Vermont. A flood warning was in place for central Maine, according to the Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland.

“The decision on whether the giant balloons will join the lineup is made based on real-time, on-the-scene weather data, not via forecasts,” said Holly Thomas, a spokeswoman for the 87th Macy’s parade. “We are closely monitoring the weather as we do each year.”

Lingering gusts of wind in New York would bring difficult conditions for crews controlling balloons for today’s parade in Manhattan, said Rob Carolan, owner of Hometown Forecast Services Inc. in Nashua, New Hampshire....

From the 2008 Macy's parade, shot from the Empire State Building by Krokodyl, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported, 2.5 Generic, 2.0 Generic and 1.0 Generic license