vail and granby, estes park and greeley. then skies clear in denver, mid- 70s between now and 7:00. in our main weather segment we'll break down the weekend forecast, warmer and drier the theme and we'll talk about the football forecast. the broncos take the field saturday night. a lot of people wonder how that's going to look. >> thank you. there's a $10,000 reward for help finding the burglars who stole pawn shop in thornton. federal agents and police don't know how many people were involved. one was caught on surveillance video. at jumping jack cash near 88th and washington around 3:20 a.m. tuesday. they took roughly 35 handguns, long guns and other items. if you think you might recognize them, call 1-800-atf- guns. a plane bound for denver was delayed after a bizarre around 9:30 p.m. a man at eppley air field started screaming people were trying to kill him. he stripped down to his underwear. police tried to catch him, but he took off running, climbed a fence, stole an airline truck and rammed it into a parked southwest plane. there were people boarding at the time. none were hurt. they arrested the man who faces criminal charges. passengers were booked on another flight and arrived in denver about three hours after their original flight time. the cdc says fentanyl, a drug significantly stronger than morphine, could be behind an increase in overdose deaths. fentanyl is commonly mixed into heroin on the streets without the users' knowledge. the dea says fentanyl is showing up in counterfeit pain pills. between 2013 and 2014 the number of deaths associated with synthetic opioids such as fentanyl has jumped 79%. you don't even know it. renee icsta lost his big brother and didn't know his brother ever used drugs. edward died from the combined effects of fentanyl and methadone. experts say it was an accident. >> people are using drugs that they shunt be, that it can affect -- shouldn't be, that it can affect them in drastic ways obviously like you losing your life, but it's not only affecting you. it's affecting your friends and family and loved did this to kind of prevent something like that from happening again to another family or like another person. >> coming up next with kyle clark fentanyl is becoming such a problem law enforcement has to learn how to deal with it. otherwise it could potentially kill them, too. a mother's love, an ultimate sacrifice means her young son will live. it is a heart breaking story, chelsea russell and her family of lake powell tuesday. her 2-year-old boy fell overboard. she jumped in and kept his head above water until help got there. 9news reporter jessica oh tells us about chelsea's final selfless act. >> mountain biking, water skiing, snow skiing, snowboarding, i mean she was very outdoorsy. >> reporter: chelsea russell was athletic and active, so it's no surprise she'd take the family on an eight hour trip to lake powell. what does surprise jackie barry hill was how >> you think here's a person that's going to have an outstanding career for decades and have it cut short is tragic. >> reporter: her 2-year-old son fell off a houseboat. she jumped in to save him. by the time help arrived the boy was alive. she was not. the 35-year-old triathlete from lakewood did not drown. she died of heart failure as she kept her son's head above water. >> it's got to be a mother's first instinct to think of herself and that's obviously what she did. she was rescuing her child. >> reporter: a mother's sacrifice, barry hill, former colorado state judge, says that's who she was, a great mom and a great attorney. he's been following chelsea's career since she interned for him years ago. >> i reread this little thank you note that she wrote to me after the summer of 2009 and it was very heartfelt and sweet and personal and that was chelsea. she alwayswa reaching out and making other people feel good. that's why i saved it because it meant a lot to me. >> reporter: barry hill also saved this, a powerful example of chelsea's ambition and love for her kids. >> it was interesting, this article that i clipped from the summer of 2012 talked about her having given birth to her first child, her daughter hayden, three days before she took the bar exam. >> reporter: colleagues, friends describe her as a everything to save her son. >> absolutely sad. >> investigators say that neither the mother nor child was wearing a life vest. russell is a denver lake native. in addition to her son and daughter she also leaves her husband. strong aftershocks have damaged two key access roads into amatrice almost completely isolating the small town in central italy. the head of protection agency says they hope to find some survivors in the top of buildings. 267 people have been killed. some funerals are being held for the dead. a large state funeral will be held tomorrow for those who died. there are questions about whether more should have been done to secure the buildings. at least one of the buildings was a school that cost nearly $1 million to reenforce for publicly today, but that is not stopping either one of them of accusing each other of having racial bias. clinton dug in on her position lashing out at donald trump this morning on msnbc while the republican presidential nominee stepped up his verbal attacks. clinton said this morning there were no favors given to donors who gave money to the clinton foundation while she was secretary of state. she also said donald trump's beliefs and policies are bigoted. trump said clinton divert from the issues voters need to hear and said democrats resort to the racist argument when their policies fail. next week trump will be in arizona and will await to see details on his immigration man. a project to build a playground in a day draws hundreds of volunteers. >> the cat squad at dia doubles in number. know that cats or canines. z23eiz zvpz y23eiy yvpy crash in iowa. a driver of a car merges onto a highway in des moines apparently not seeing a huge truck. the truck pushes the car down the road. the semi driver had slowed down right past out of camera range and did get both vehicles stopped. the car driver faces charges. the semi driver was going about 65 miles an hour. two federal agencies are looking at the possibility of arbitrarily limiting speeds on highways. a new proposal from the national highway traffic safety administration and the federal motor carrier safety administration would forcibly limit the speeds, a speed governor in essence. a device would be put on new vehicles weighing more than 26,000 pounds and would cap the speeds at 60, 65 or 68 miles per hour. the maximum weight for a u.s. semi truck and full trailer is 80,000 pounds. the two administrations say limiting speed will reduce the nu involving heavy trucks that happen every year. there will be a period of public comment before it becomes final. more than 200 volunteers converge on a campus for special need kid to build a new special need playground from scratch. the whole efforts took just one day. >> reporter: all the work put in by volunteers like rich hanson are paying off in play. >> reporter: they're building a playground for the sewell child development center and the reecht charter school for children with special needs. >> this has been a huge undertaking and it's really important for the kids to have a nice outdoor space. >> the students who have significant needs, a playground is actually one of the best places for them to learn. we're able to provide real opportunities motor, play and activities. >> reporter: the students drew up designs to inspire a nonprofit kaboom who designed an inclusive playground. >> the kids drew their dream playstations and we have this one of a kind playground so that kid, no matter what their abilities are, are able to play together. >> this is important to the community. >> reporter: all from work. >> everybody is out there having fun wearing great hats, >> i think it's amazing. we'll complete this from the ground up in one day. >> reporter: the best part, she likes it. >> it's like big and tall and bigger. >> reporter: in denver nelson garcia, 9news. >> the playground will officially open to the kids next week. the nonprofit kaboom does these kinds of projects all over the country. in fact, this playground is the 2,801st the organization has built in north america. >> the airport can be a from checking in security lines to taking off. dia has a team of therapy dogs to help calm nervous passengers. as of today, the cats have doubled that stands for canine airport therapy squad. the total is now 53. these squad members are trained to help bring a little calm to people. the new members were introduced the cats at dia wear blue and black checkered vests. it's apparently national dog day. a lot of us in colorado love our pups, but also know they aren't very cheap. according to the american society for the prevention of cruelty to animals, the first year of dog ownership costs about $1,300 for a smaller dog and up to $1,800 for a bigger dog including spaying or neutering one time, initial medical cost drops to about 180 to $175 a year. a lot of you are sharing your puppy love on facebook and twitter. keep on sending in those pictures. we love them. use the #9news and ationaldogday. >> they're all worth it and then some. it got a little warmer today. we'll tickle 90 but not before more storms roll through the night. i have the umbrella ready. i've got the car washed yesterday, kathy. i was convinced it was going to rain today. >> for some folks it did rain today, but other areas bright sunshine, blue skies, interesting. the weather system that has been producing the showers day after day to the south and west of us finally on the move. weekend you'll love the weekend forecast. let's start with what's happening outside right now. a mix of clouds and sunshine. there's been some showers around the area. for those headed up on i-70 and the continental divide bright sunshine probably the biggest problem today and not such an awful problem to have on a busy get-away friday. 79 degrees in denver today, 82 in pueblo, 78 in grand junction, a little closer to where we should be for this time of year but nowhere near record territory. at the airport this hour 75 of the north, winds calm in the backyard outside the studios with temperatures here in the mid-70s. thundershowers we're tracking have turned severe in weld county today. these storm are moving rapidly from the northwest toward the south east producing brief heavy downpours, wind, lightning and small hail. they're moving fast. they aren't sticking around long and the moisture plume today much more limited than yesterday and the day before. the area of low pressure that's spinning to the south and west bit and we have high pressure rebuilding over the area. as the cool air begins to scour away, high pressure sets up. we have a warming and drying trend that will kick off tomorrow and continue into the weekend. as a matter of fact, the moisture plume pretty light coming from the southwest. we'll have a mostly sunny start to the day tomorrow with temperatures back in the mid- 80s, a little closer where we should be for this time of year. with that moisture tracking in late in the day and heating of the day we have a chance for a late tonight the storms are coming off the foothills from the northwest to the southeast and the snow line remains very high. notice the cloud cover moves out overnight. temperatures will be quite cool, but we start off mostly sunny tomorrow, push of moisture from the southwest means a few foothill thunderstorms around 2:00 or 3:00. those storms will push over denver after 3:00 tomorrow. temperatures tonight will range from 45 in hayden to 58 in west but warmest in southeastern colorado, close to 90 down around pueblo, lamar, mid-80s in denver, greeley and fort collins, a beautiful day for outdoor activities in some of the front range foothill locales like idaho springs and blackhawk. in the denver metro area the rest of tonight we are calling for the chance of a sprinkle, a rumble of thunder and skies will clear. under partly cloudy skies we'll drop down to about 53 degrees tonight. tomorrow is where we start. then temperatures warm by lunchtime, mid-80s by 3:00 in the afternoon. not an entirely dry day, but a much quieter day than what we saw today and yesterday. temperatures start to creep close to 90 degrees as we move toward sunday and monday afternoon. there will be a few thundershowers that move in tuesday. then a warm summer pattern shaping up for most of next week. if you've been longing for a return to summer, there you go for the last few days of august. broncos take the field saturday forecast, 76 degrees at 6 p.m. with maybe an isolated foothills storm. the clouds are awfully pretty and keep sending fed chair janet yellen said the case for raising interest rates has strengthened. ? amazing sleep stays with you all day and all night. sleep number beds with sleepiq technology give you the knowledge to adjust for the best sleep ever. the time is now for the biggest sale of the year, where all beds are on sale! save 50% on the labor day limited edition bed. know better sleep. only at a sleep number store. from colorado's sports leader here's rod mackey. >> we are about 24 hours away from the broncos and rams and it's looking more and more like the qb will be at the position on offense with the least amount of experience but also a player who the rest of the broncos believe in on both sides of the football. the denver d believes they actually could be better than they were a season ago and yet be. everyone expects that offense to be improved. >> i just think we're better as a group, you know. we're a lot better as a group and then another part of it, we don't want to rely on the defense too much. i think we got comfortable with that last year. we want to do our part on this team, also. >> our main focus is getting the running game going. all three quarterbacks can make every throw. once we get the running game going the passing game will come. i think it will be better than last year and we'll be ready. >> i think we played well. i two weeks in a row and went right down the field. that's pretty good. that's what you want to do. i believe in us. i believe in our team. we got a lot of questions to answer, but that's football. saturday night live at mile high on channel 20, we'll get you started with our pregame show at 6:00 and kickoff at 7:00. the college football season officially kicks off tonight with cal versus hawaii. then a week from tonight it's the buffs and rams getting together again. last year the buffs won in their favorite to repeat that feat this year. the folks in vegas say colorado by eight. it's not just another game, not for either side. >> we're not looking to lose. we just want to win game by game and hopefully our fans don't talk too much smack if we win, but if we do, so be it. >> the fact that we're in the same state is like i want to win, you know. if i ever go want to be able to hold my head up high and look you in your eyes and give a little smirk. >> it's going to be fun. finally it's time to turn on the friday night lights. high school football is upon us with zero week. taylor temby joins us live from mullen high school with a major match-up to kick off the season. taylor. >> reporter: you said it, rod. they're wasting no time getting [ audio difficulties ] >> okay. so once again we get all excited for friday night lights. it's a huge game. you've got mullen against pomona, two of the top three teams. we got a big game coming up tonight in 3a with roosevelt who got to the state championship last year and taylor was so excited about it she just froze up with excitement. >> stop it. >> i recallst of cu/csu somebody in the newsroom going a little wild. >> and people wearing that color right there were not so happy. >> radar green? >> you heard the players say don'talk too much trash. i guess if you say it's okay, i'll talk. we've got a whole week to see what happens. rockies update, just got in my ear bad news, 1-0 nationals in the 1st inning. >> the magic always happens in the 8th and 9th innings. >> kathy has confidence. >> they'll be fine, rod. >> the magic happens in the 8th 8th and 9th inning. do you see taylor standing up there in the sunshine? beautiful. that's the trend heading into the weekend. do you love that? some of our forecast details include a weather system that is moving out. so your high temperatures tomorrow will be half bad. let me tell you. the forecast trend for the evening will be cool as skies clear, lower 50s. sunrise 6:22 tomorrow and we'll watch for numbers to climb into the mid-70s by lunchtime, mid- 80s in the afternoon, typically 86 this time of year. we will surpass that number heading into the second half of the weekend and first part of next week, a lot of people excited about a little return weather and good travel weather for people and red rocks weather. that's hard to say, red rocks weather. broncos take the field saturday night as the rod mentioned and good game time forecast, temperatures in the 70s. >> looks good. nbc nightly news is next. after this we'll see you next with kyle clark at 6:00. tonight, nbc news exclusive. for the first time, donald trump's doctor speaks out about his letter declaring trump to be the healthiest person ever elected president. why he tells us it was written in just five minutes, what we know about trump's health. as trump throw conspiracy theories about hillary clinton. tropical threat moving in, major flood warnings in florida and new concerns along the gulf coast. zika blood fears, a new alert from the fda declaring all donations should be screened for the virus. nun murder mystery has shocked the nation. snoring solutions? there's things to help