Today. It is fantastic. We have the fall colors that are just gorgeous in the metro area. And we have nothing but sunshine so it has been a fantastic start to the week. You know what guys . Last saturday, we broke a record, today, we were so close. Just a couple of degrees shy. That Current Record high, last set back in 2003 at 84. And, todays high, just 82 degrees so across town right now at this 5 00 hour, upper 70s , low 80s i76. A little cooler up in the mountains. Cooler in silverthorn. 60s in Idaho Springs ands nederland. Winds have picked up in the boulder area. Broomfield, around 31. As we get further to the south, the winds will be picking up as well. You can see on hd doppler 9 that we have plenty of dry conditions across the state. And, that is the way that we are going to keep it the next building in though we will be watching a cold front rolling through the area tomorrow. That means that we will be watching the temperatures dropping by about five degrees. But, that is going to be about it. You can see a red flag warning unfortunately in place across the state today. These will continue until 6 00. And you can see the wind gusts up in the foothills. Northern and southern colorado. So, this is the deal. The rest of this evening so pleasant. So wonderful. If you can, fire up the we are just kind of savoring the end of october. And all of mother natures beauty around here. As i mentioned we have the little cool off coming. It will be short lived because we have pretty nice conditions on tap next week. But where in the world is the rain . You guys, it has been about 15, 16 days since we have had measurable rain here in the denver metro area. Coming up i will let you know if i anticipate any storms moisture. For weekend, we are loving this. We are loving it. Absolutely. All right danielle. Well, the summer sporting season is being kept going. It feels more like spring skiing with temperatures in the 50s. Dillon, they put their shelves up for the season. It is very warm for october. The yeah. I work for the Nordic Center there. They were trying to make snow. And it has been too warm. [ laughter ] but beautiful rowing weather. And, it looks like this week will stay pretty warm with day temperature ins the 50s for just a little while longer. After long delays and cost overrunning, the agency overseeing construction of the va hospital in aurora says it is making progress. The Army Engineers offered a 70 complete. It should meet its goal and wrap up construction by january of 20818. Earlier this month, an Energy Center went online for the hospital. And some clinic buildings are nearly complete. They plan to hold over the finished facilities to the va. It doesnt mean they will be open. It looks like a hospital that is about ready to receive people. But theres still a lot of work to be done. So, that will, it will be handed over to the department of veteran affair of 2017. But, theres still a lot of work to do. The army corp. Of engineers took over supervising construction almost two years ago. Federal investigators found gross mismanagement by the va added hundreds of millions of dollars to the budget and delayed it by years. It is expected to cost 1. 7 billion. Nearly triple the estimate. Federal authorities in North Western colorado arrested a former postal worker after they found more than 26,000 with delaying or destroying mail between october 2014 and this past april. If he is convicted he could face up to five years in prison. The u. S. Attorneys office says recovered mail was addressed to people in sterling and fort morgan. It is not clear what led to the discovery. The grand county Sheriffs Department is warning drivers about Falling Rocks after one of its patrol cars was damaged by a pretty sizable rock. Some snowfall mixed with warmer days and high winds has brought rocks down into in byers canyon. Rocks landed on car ins two cases. Monday, a grand county sheriffs deputy was helping a driver whose car was hit by a rock when a second rock fell on the patrol car. We are encouraging our citizens to not stop in byers canyon where we have rock flow any time throughout this time of the year so they dont put their vehicles in the situation that we ran into this week. And, fortunately, no one was temperatures keep shifting back and forth. Today, fire evacuees in Pueblo County got to return home. Crews battling the fire say it is about 35 contained. They were against dry conditions. Higher temperatures and more wind. The fire has burned almost 18,000 acres east of west cliff in southern colorado. So far, it has destroyed five homes. It started when high winds knocked down a fire that tore through a Southern California recycling center an burned through the night is now under control. Today, crews worked to mop up scattered flames on the property. And, it is about 30 miles outside of los angeles. Add its height, the fire created enormous plumes of smoke that can be seen for miles. Two firefighters suffered minor injuries and one woman was treated for smoke inhalation. The cause of the fire is still under investigation. The sun is about to get a the next couple of years. That is because nasa is preparing to launch a Major Mission to the sun. A mission that has colorado connections. Next year, a total Solar Eclipse will be visible across a large section of the u. S. The preparations for both events came as the space agency celebrates another milestone for another sun mission. Here is 9news reporter maya rodriguez. Reporter it is the closest star to earth. And, arguably, the most important one. The sun. Proximity, there is not much we know about it. We can still predict it a lot better. Reporter predicting the sun involves understanding its solar storms and flares which can affect tens of millions of miles to affect our satellites and electrical grids. People make jokes about weather forecasting and how accurate it is, but it is actually pretty good these days but we are not that good with space weather. Reporter and the effort is about to get a boost from solar spacecraft in 2018 to reach out and touch the sun. Coming within just four million miles of the suns corona. It will mark the first time a human spacecraft has ever visited a star. That is the closest we will be, 25 times closer to the sun than we are here at earth. Reporter several of the missions investigators are based at cu boulder and a cu built science instrument will be collecting data. Almost all stars emit a into space. And, it is one of the frontiers we dont fully understand. Reporter meanwhile, a separate mission called stereo, is celebrating a decade of studying the sun. It consists of two identical spacecrafts. It is useful to have more than one point of view for the sun like it is useful to have two eyes because it can give you a 3d view. Makes life possible here from 93 million miles away. Maya rodriguez, 9news. Nasa scientists also hope to learn more about the suns atmosphere next year during the major north american Solar Eclipse. One of the best spots to see it will be in wyoming as its curves its way from state ins the Pacific Northwest to the southeast. Another person takes a knee during the National Anthem. Except this time, it was the person singing and two Companies Agree on a deal that could have cnn and hbo owned by at t. And robotics and animal usa da reached a deal to buy time warner for 80 billion. The deal would be one of the largest acquisitions every in the Telecom Media sector. It includes hbo, cnn, and Warner Brothers theme parks. At t shocked wall street by paying more than 48 billion to buy direct tv. More than 70 of people abusing prescription pain relievers got them through friends or relatives according to the department of justice. Got the risk or temptation out of their medicine cabinets. Today was National Prescription drug take back day. Denver police and agencies all over the area participated in this. They collected left over or expriored drugs at more than 100 locations. It is not safe to flush them or dispose them in the trash. Now, according to the da, the last takeback had a collection record of 4200 agencies across 900,000 pounds of unwanted medicines. Todays make a difference day across the country. And 9news helped by volunteering at the food banks of the rockies. Many 9news employees and other volunteers helped to box food that will be sent to more than 100 food banks and pantries across colorado. We are here today because we are human beings. I mean, we want to help other people. When you look around here at food bank of the rockies, you look at the cannes and the bags of that stuff. It is generous people. It is great to make a difference in someones life. Make a difference day is one of the largest annual single days of service in the country. People can register an idea for a future Community Service project on makeadifferenceserviceday. Com. Halloween is coming up and there is still time to get your game on when it comes to designing a haunted house. A few of the frightmare compound came on 9news to show us how you can turn a store bought skeleton into something that could qualify as a movie prop and showed how to make a low lying fog machine for under 50 bucks. See both videos on 9news. Com. So you dont wear the same thing as someone else on halloween. You can see what costumes are trending in your area on harley quinns, pirates and superheros on halloween. If you can find one that doesnt match someone elses, good for you. It is fun to dress up. After a heart start to the weekend, we cool off tomorrow, danielle is tracking a drop in the temperatures. And i hope that someone dresses up as blucifer from dia. If you were planning on doing approaching 5 20. We are getting a live look at fort collins. Beautiful out there. I hope all the grills are going at this time. It is just a perfect day for that, isnt it . It is a perfect, perfect evening. Especially to get outside. Considering that we are approaching november pretty quickly here. And it is still in the 70s , the 80s across much of meteorologist danielle grant. Danielle, you were out in the backyard where we wish we still were. It is beautiful out there. I need you to come out here and man the grill syringe grill, vicente arenas. Is it 6 00 yet . [ laughter ] it has just been a fantastic day. A great start to the weekend. A quintessential colorado day. Nothing but sunshine. Plenty of blue skies. Across the Loveland Ski Area there, hoping some time this week to be opening up. With all the blue skies. Man, it is just going to be gorgeous. Downtown denver from cheesman park. A fantastic saturday around here. And here is the trend is next couple of days. High pressure will be in control of our weather pattern. You can see one storm system to the west. Another one to the east. And, we are saed between. That is going to keep the heat around here. And also, the drier conditions for the next couple of days. As far as this afternoon goes, it was a warm one. Low 80s in fort collins. Downtown denver, 77 in greeley. Warming up across southeast colorado as well. 73 in salida and mid 60s in telluride. Right now out at the airport, we are at 79. Plenty of sunshine and the winds are calm. Here in the nice backyard, a little breeze going. Our temperatures holding strong. Right here at 80 degrees. It has been so dry the past couple of days. I will zoom out and you can really see the dome of High Pressure taking over most of the midsection as far as the dry weather is concerned. That one storm system off to the north and to the east, actually bringing them a little bit of snowfall to the northern aderondacks. Wet sloppy snow but they will have a change of seasons out there. We do have a storm and a front just situated up to the north. That cold front actually will dig into colorado by tomorrow afternoon. Knocking down daytime highs by just a couple of degrees so a slight little cooloff coming but High Pressure is still in control. So, it wont be bringing any wet weather with it. Tonight, we are down to 44. Mostly clear conditions. Sunrise at 7 17 tomorrow. The winds remain light over night. We are cooling off to 37 in greeley. Country. About 26 tonight in gunnison. By 8 00 a. M. , once again, plenty of sunshine. Dry conditions. That front pushes through, you might find a bit of a breeze, but loads of sunshine no matter where you are. By 10 00 p. M. , we will watch for a couple of clouds. Temperatures returning to the mid 70s so believe it or not. Da average. Tomorrow, all right, 15 degrees above average. So, that slight little cool off is all relatively speaking. We will have plenty of sunshine once again from the west to the east. Eastern side of this state. With the 70s continuing. You can see the cool off moving into eastern colorado. About 77 in lamar. 60s in frisco and aspen. Supposed to be a comfortable eye. Loads of sunshine. In the afternoon, we are looking pretty good. Mountain biking, tomorrow is your day. Temperatures just looking fantastic. By monday, monday evening, a weak little storm system will try to just nudge its way into the state. I think monday night into tuesday, we might find just a couple of light little showers that roll off the foothills onto the planes. That is if we are lucky. I dont think everyone is going to see the rain. So im crossing my fingering holding out hope. It would be nice to see something different. The heat returns by thursday. As we head far, you guys, looks like the temperatures will remain in the 70s. I know a lot of kids are saying thats okay. We dont want to be covered up in our costumes. Isnt it the worse . You get the best costume and have to cover it up with a puffy coat. Thank you danielle. In frisco, there is an annual tradition where they dress up an elk sculpture. Familiar figure at dia. It has been modeled after blucifer. Someone gave it the crazy red eyes and wrapped it in blue. It will keep the look through halloween. Matt renoux has called this elkcifer. It looks mom like a piece of art. A photographer was surprised by what he saw in a fire. A pair of kittens in need of saving. And what microsoft says after Bill Belichick threw in a woman performing the National Anthem did it kneeling in miami. She opened her jacket to reveal a black lives matter on facebook. She chose a peaceful protest. She said she was not paid for her performance. The miami heat said they had no advance knowledge of her plan. When Bill Belichick told reporters he was done with tablets, it didnt take long for microsoft to go on the defense. Belichick slammed down one of the tablets in an angry moment. He told reporters they were preferred them. Microsoft made a 400 million deal with the nfl to make the surface the official tablet of the league for five years. A photographer who saw fire spontaneously decided to get photos when Something Else caught his attention. A pair of kittens in grave danger. They nearly died in a controlled burn in rural north carolina. They were born just weeks earlier near the burn pile when it was set on fire. A photographer stopped to capture the flames when he kittens were trapped. It was hard for me to get close to it. I shield myself with my jacket to even attempt to try to grab her. He rescued both cats and got them to an emergency vet. Both are now recovering with a foster parent. The photograph every says he is considering adopting them. Just because an emu cant fly doesnt mean he cant go far. Case in point, the troopers in emu disrupting traffic. They found the bird criss crossing the road. They eventually lassoed the emu and were able to load it into the trailer. There it is. Emus are native to australia. Not arizona. Still, troopers say it is not the first time they have found one of those birds running on the roads there. But they were safely able to get it off the road. Sup, emu . Just looking in the window there. Still to come, we remember a who summited the worlds tallest peaks. And with the race for the with a little more than two weeks left before election day, candidates are rattilying support in battleground states. Donald trump laid out his plans for the first 100 days in policy speech. Donald trump in pennsylvania laying out his agenda for his presidencys first 100 days but like all trump speeches it touched on a wide range of topics from the leadership of abraham lincoln. It is my hope we can look at his example to heal the divisions we are living through right now. Reporter to making mexico pay for a border wall. Remember, i said mexico is paying for the wall. Reporter trump mentioned the women who have come forward to accuse him of inappropri them. The events never happened. Never. All of these liars will be sued after the election is over. Reporter all of this happening as an 11th accuser came forward saturday in los angeles. If mr. Trump thought such bullying tactics would silence his accusers and prevent other women from coming forward, he will be sorely disappointed. Reporter the clinton winning are win the margin of error in every swing state is trying to run out the clock. Clinton is in pittsburgh with her running mate tim kaine making an appeal to voters wavering in their support for trump. You probably know people thinking about voting for donald trump. I understand that they need a president who cares about them, will listen to them. And i want to be their president too. Reporter already underway in 34 states for clinton and trumpings time is running short. Chris pilone, nbc news. Mailed ballots in colorado went out monday. Next week, we will get an update from the secretary of state on how many have been returned. In iraq, 250 people needed treatment for breathing difficulties after isis torched a sulfur plant outside of mosul. Isis fighters have launched a 100 miles away. Also today, russia led the u. S. Led coalition against isis of a war crime in iraq. They say two jets attacked a funeral procession they mistook for isis fighter. 17 civilians were killed. An investigation is understood way. A day a a massive cyber attack, it is still a mystery who is responsible. Yesterdays hack targeted dine, a company that monitorsd it lasted several hours and affected sites like twitter, netflix, and amazon. Hackers created a virtual army of cyber bots by affecting millions of internet connected devices with a virus and sent millions of requests to dine causing it to crash. The fact that compa