Cops fear SpongeBob balloon will be hardest to control at Macys parade

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SpongeBob SquarePants may be too big for his britches.

A float depicting the popular cartoon character could be the first to be yanked from the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade if conditions get too gusty — because the balloon is just so large, police officials said Wednesday.

“Some of our balloons are larger than others,” NYPD Chief of Patrol Rodney Harrison told reporters during a press briefing Wednesday.

Harrison noted that the balloon of SpongeBob and his pet sea snail Gary — which has a volume of 18,000 cubic feet — and Chase from “Paw Patrol” are the largest of the balloons when it comes to overall volume in the 93rd annual parade.

“There are certain areas where they will be more of a struggle,” Harrison said, adding, that officials could move a larger balloon from the route and take it to a side street to deflate it “if need be.”

The giant balloons in the parade can fly as high as 55 feet and as low as 10 feet.

“But if it comes to a situation of public safety, we will bring them down to 10 feet,” said Harrison.

Sustained winds of 23 miles per hour — or gusts above 34 mph — will force the NYPD to ground the iconic flight of balloons.

If things get too windy, organizers may pull individual balloons off to side streets to wait out the gusts — or simply deflate them altogether, officials said.

NYPD Chief of Department Terence Monahan noted “everything will be a game-day decision.”

“It’s only been once that the balloons did not fly,” Monahan said in reference to when the city grounded the balloons on Thanksgiving in 1971.

Monahan said there will be anemometers to measure the speed of the wind at seven points along the roughly 2½-mile Manhattan parade route.

“When they are going down the block, we’ll see what the wind speeds are,” he said, adding, “We work in coordination with Macy’s, but NYPD makes the final call” as to whether the balloons will fly due to weather conditions.

The 16 giant character balloons to fly in the parade include Astronaut Snoopy, Green Eggs and Ham, Greg Heffley from “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” and Olaf from “Frozen.”

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