Rains won’t push back the I-95 repair schedule, PennDot says

While the emergency repair efforts on Interstate 95 in Philly may have a powerful ally in that massive blow-dryer delivered by the Pocono Downs Raceway, evidently the atmosphere will do its best to frustrate the project during the next several days.

A chance of showers is in the forecasts through the middle of next week, and when it’s not raining, meteorologists say the air is going to be nearly saturated with water vapor that could inhibit the drying process after any significant rainfall.

But the helicopter-engine drying device should be stronger than the rain, Mike Carroll, the Pennsylvania secretary of transportation, said Thursday, on a gloomy first full day of summer when a strong east wind made it feel as though the Shore had come to Philadelphia.

» READ MORE: Temporary I-95 lanes will reopen this weekend, Gov. Shapiro says

Carroll, a former state House member who represented the Pocono Raceway region, said that he had seen it flash-dry the asphalt surface on the NASCAR raceway any number of times and that it would work on I-95.

He said it had never been used on a public roadway, as far as he knew. “I don’t think anyone had this on a bingo card,” he said, but added that he had “a high level of confidence” that it would keep the I-95 repair project on schedule. Gov. Josh Shapiro said Tuesday that temporary lanes were expected to open by the weekend.

Ben May, the raceway president, said that he too was confident it would work, but acknowledged that weather would be an important factor in its effectiveness, and the outlook isn’t particularly promising.

» READ MORE: Just how long might all this take?

After overnight showers, a dry Friday morning should be decent for making hay on repairs, said Eric Hoeflich, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service Office in Mount Holly.

The 12-hour period ending about noon Saturday also should offer a good window, said Dave Dombek, a senior meteorologist with AccuWeather Inc.

Otherwise, however, the air is going to feel like heat wave soup starting Friday, and random downpours will be in play, he added. The possibility of showers appears in the forecasts at least through Wednesday.

On Friday afternoon, said Hoeflich, “We are a little concerned about flooding potential.”

During the weekend, high humidity and dew points — measures of the absolute moisture in the atmosphere — are going to be higher than they’ve been all year, said Dombek. Moisture in the air is the enemy of drying at the surface.

The building humidity represents a major shift in the winds.

For the last three days, they have been coming off the Atlantic Ocean, importing quite chilly air. Wednesday’s high in Philly, 66 degrees, was a record low maximum for a June 21, quite an affront to the arrival of the astronomical summer.

Not coincidentally, the water temperatures off Atlantic City are in the mid-60s. Although shy of a record low, the highs in Philly didn’t get out of the 60s on Thursday. “We’re basically at mid-April level,” said Dombek.

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With the latest chill spell, it is almost certain that temperatures in Philly will finish below normal in June, as they did in May. That would be the first time that both May and June had average temperatures below normal in 20 years, Dombek said.

A storm offshore and a fair-weather system to the north were conspiring to drive the ocean air well inland.

That is due to change Friday morning, as winds assume a more southerly component, importing muggy air that was awaiting its turn on Thursday, said Dombek.

He added that the repair crews on I-95 may be in for a challenge.

They are armed with that helicopter engine, mounted on a red Chevy Silverado. The blower is used to dry the racetrack after rain, and will be used to keep the newly laid asphalt dry enough so crews can paint lines.

This could well be a rare case in which watching paint dry actually might be interesting.