its match in tonight's high winds, i-25 shut down as first responders race to keep the sign in 1 piece. >> those same winds are knocking down trees and fanning fires as temperatures soar into the 70s and break records. >> no quick fix, cdot still hasn't been able to reopen part of i-70 after a major rockslide. >> falling out of the sky, a helicopter with five people on board goes down. >> and colorado's infant mortality problem, digging into the numbers reveals a tough to talk about topic. 9news starts now. saying it's a bit windy is an understatement, strong gusts, some nearly 100 miles per hour in the mountains and 40 to 50 in the front range left their mark. they impacted thousands of people during the evening rush is what the wind did to the

panels started to come loose around 6 p.m. on the free standing sign. metro fire was among the agencies that responded and within minutes light rail tracks were completely shut down between county line and dry creek road. the highway reopened about two hours later just after 8:00. 9news reporter whitney wild is there. whitney? >> reporter: adele, you said it. this every the panels started to come -- the panels started to come loose. when you consider it, this really could have been catastrophic. each panel is 8-foot by 4 feet. if one hit a car it, could have been catastrophic. luckily that wasn't the case. the wind have been 40 -- winds have been 45 miles an hour. earlier in the evening an employee saw those panels started to flutter in the wind. he told his supervisor who

here in a hurry. several firefighter from south metro fire and rescue went up the ladder about 100 feet to start tightening those panels so they wouldn't become any more loose. the highway was shut down. south metro fire rescue explains why. >> if the individual panels come loose and with the wind sheers, it could go across the highway, could go across rtd lines, hit a railcar, hit a car >> reporter: this sign raised quite a bit of controversy when the store was built. the city of centennial limited signs to 32 feet tall. the ikea sign is more than three times that. it's 100 feet tall. the city approved the plan anyway and the company agreed to build the sign here, but later ikea had to move the sign a couple feet because was encroaching on the i-25 right- of-way. again ikea saying this is all

saying the same. ikea said they'll have inspectors out here in the coming days to take a look. >> i know it made a mess of the evening rush, but all is better now, whitney wild in centennial, thank you. some other local landmarks came down in the wind today, a 60-foot tree in englewood this there. in denver a tree at third and grant met its end in a gust this afternoon. just like you we look out our window to measure the wind. tonight. in denver. a rare february rain shower is moving through the south side of town right now, free car wash along the same stretch of sign malfunction. kathy sabine has had no shortage of informal win gauges tonight, kathy? -- wind gains tonight, kathy? that's right, hair being the best one, kyle. the gusty southwest wind pushed

territory. we broke a record with a high of 73 at dia, the average 47, the old record 71. this marks the warmest day of the week and year. now we're still tracking peak gusts around broomfield and dia over 50 miles an hour. child if you have a flight. that could be a -- call ahead in you have a flight, that could be a factor for you. gusty lurk force winds continue to blow -- hurricane force winds continue to blow tonight. blowing snow is an issue on i- 70 as a high wind warning remains in fact. we had a brief shower in the tech center an hour ago. heavy snow expected a short time in the northern and central mountains. all the advisories cancel all by noon tomorrow, less wind expected tomorrow. the winds peak overnight. by midmorning tomorrow things start to improve. dry for the morning drive and we look ahead to the upcoming weekend and wind is not a big feature. how about that?

a firefight in lincoln county is being made much more difficult tonight by those winds. we're told it's large, although there's no estimate on the exact number of acres burned. earlier today another fire in northern weld county burned one structure 40 miles northeast of greeley. help was called in from communities in wyoming, no word yet how that fire started. before the winds kicked up this afternoon and evening the big weather story was the heat. denver broke a record going back 86 years, the high reaching 73. for perspective it was just 2 degrees cooler than miami. we still have about 10 days to go in the month. if this pattern holds, denver could very well break the record for the warmest february. it was just a year ago denver broke the record for the snowiest february. in a few minutes kathy is back with a forecast that includes cooler weather and a chance for snow. it could be weeks before i- 70 is fully reopened after a rockslide in glenwood canyon.

a pilot car would lead vehicles one direction at a time through 6 miles alternating east and west. delays will be at least an hour while that's going on. cdot said weather slowed its progress forcing crews to hand carry tools when a helicopter could not fly. the closure is already affecting tourism in glenwood springs. >> we do have some people here who have extended their stay in glenwood springs because they decided well, they don't want to spend the extra couple of hours to be rerouted and conversely we do have some people who are either traveling by amtrak train to get to glenwood springs or have to take another route around the closure. >> that route is a bear. drivers west bound are detoured north on colorado 131 at wolcott up to steamboat springs, west on 40 to craig, up to rifle to the interstate adding 146 miles and about three hours travel time. the pearl harbor memorial

sites in the hawaiian islands. tourists at the visitors center witnessed a fell hospital crash a few yards from where they stood. five people were on board the helicopter when it crashed into the water. all of them survived. a 16-year-old is in critical condition. witnesses say the helicopter shook before it dropped out of the sky. others say smoke was coming out the back. tourists at the uss arizona memorial were malted after the accident. popes don't play -- halted after the accident. popes don't play in primary typically, but if there's anything we can say about this political season is it's unconventional. reporters asked the pope about donald trump's pledge to build a wall along the mexico/u.s. border. the pope respond a person who thinks about building walls and not building bridges wherever they may be is not a christian. trump backs down from no man, not even the pope. >> if and when the vatican is

everyone knows is isis' ultimate trophy, i can promise you that the pope would have only wished and prayed that donald trump would have been president. >> does this hurt trump? why would it? nothing has so far. this may be no different despite the fact recent polling found nearly 3/4 of american catholics have a positive view of the pope. two surgeons testified that michelle wilkins nearly died and lost half her blood when she was attacked and her unborn baby taken from her a year ago. the doctors who treated her at the hospital said she had a large cut across her abdomen and wounds to her neck. she survived. her baby did not. wilkins was not in court today. the prosecution showed several items from the house including two knives. the defendant dynel lane lowered her eyes when the evidence was displayed for the jury. the infant mortality rate in colorado is the fifth lowest in the u.s. however, the racial disparity among those children

the largest in the u.s. african american infants face a much higher risk of death compared with hispanic and caucasian babies. our partners at rocky mountain pbs news dug into the numbers. 9news anchor kyle dyer tells us things around. >> we had gone like the week before to pick out her furniture and we picked it out and it was supposed to be delivered. >> reporter: but sheila young never got to play in this nursery with her daughter. in 1998 her baby girl died just a couple of weeks before her due date. niesha thorn faced the same thing with her oldest child. >> i was 38 weeks pregnant, had stopped feeling the baby move over the weekend, went to a final class with my mom and early monday morning decided something wasn't feeling right. >> these are children who i think should have a better chance starting off the.

wilcox spent most of the past year looking into why african american infants have a harder time surviving than other children in colorado. more than one in 10 african american babies is born prematurely, which is the leading cause of infant death. here at fairmont cemetery this is referred to as baby land. when you walk around and look at the grave stones, you see many children did not live very long. four of every 1,000 white children will not live past their 1st birthday. for hispanics it's seven out of every 1,000 hispanic children die before turning 1. for african americans that number is even higher, 12 out of every 1,000 african american babies won't make it to their 1st birthday. >> so there's something about stressors in the african american community that make those moms cortisol levels higher compared to other moms. >> reporter: since 2011 dr.

health medical center has studied women's hair before, during and after pregnancy. [ audio difficulties ] >> post babies there are breastfeeding groups and parenting classes especially

all with the goal of preventing more lives from ending too early. with photojournalist adam vance, kyle dyer, 9news. >> we have more presources on 9news.com. kathy is tracking what's flattening the breeze tonight, when the wind subsides and whether the weather will break records again tomorrow. >> then demolition teams race nature to see which could take down a building first. >> the warm weather has fooled plants and trees, what will happen to those first buds and what you need to know about something called snow mold. >> and the fast and the frozen, we'll take you to the coldest

. an apartment building in california had to be torn down today before that building fell off a cliff. residents were forced to evacuate last month. this is in the town of pacifica a few miles north of san francisco. erosion has been accelerated by el nino and even more erosion has been further south on the cliffs in the monterey bay area. during the winter months in colorado the need for speed is usually satisfied across the black diamond areas, but a frozen lake turns into a speedway this time of year. some racers use studded tires for grip and can get up to speeds of 60 miles an hour or faster. for others the outfit is as important as their machine. the ice racing series in woodland park wrapped up this weekend.

if you attach a kite to anything, you'll get there really fast late tonight and early tomorrow. the wind continue to blow out of the southwest in excess of 60 miles per hour along the front range tonight. i'm meteorologist kathy sabine. dry in denver, isolated showers to the south, hard to believe we got that moisture on the ground. southwest wind pushing us to a record high at dia, 73 degrees. the average this time of year is 47. that's impressive, but check out pueblo at 81, almost 90 in lamar in february. gusty wind continue in dia. call ahead if you have travel plans late tonight or tomorrow. mid-40s at the airport, temperatures dropping with the front beginning to move south across the front range now and wind has been a big feature. we continue to track higher gusts in area like boomfield, dia -- broomfield, dia, berthoud and monarch pass, high wind warnings extended until

winds will peak overnight before they decrease midmorning, areas of blowing snow on i-70 and difficult travel from pueblo to trinidad and the new mexico line. seeing areas of scattered showers and blowing snow around winter park, bailey and this moisture coming off the foothills having a hard time getting on the ground, although we had a brief rain shower earlier this evening. snow and blowing snow overnight tonight and tomorrow, but this is a fast moving system. it's powerful, but it's way out of here tomorrow along the wind. we'll have less wind tomorrow. even this next system tracking onshore looks like maybe it will bring a little snow to the high country, but winds will not be a big feature heading into the weekend. record heat shift east. we're still above average. even with this front coming through tonight it will be cooler and that's way above average for this time of year. blowing snow will be an issue on i-70 tonight and late tomorrow but very little in the way of cloud cover.

burst of snow, freshen up that snowpack in time for the weekend, decent travel across the state starting tomorrow. tonight a winter storm warning shaded in red, winter weather advisories aspen, vail into the grand junction area. quick burst of snow. skies clear and it gets cold, 18 in aspen tonight, frisco 15, 32 in greeley, milder temperatures are in southeastern colorado where highs run above average again tomorrow. we're kicking off a bit of a cooling trend on the weekend, but the wind should get better by midmorning, probably keep you awake tonight. then we'll be looking for things that were once on our patio. 58 in evergreen tomorrow, 46 in red feather lakes. denver, windy, partly cloudy skies, 35 degrees. metro gusts to 50 tonight, decreasing midmorning. mid-50s by lunchtime, low 60s in the afternoon. beautiful friday coming up and a good weekend. the weekend looks dry, snow out

in monday, bit of a cooling trend next week, a few snow drive. fast moving relatively weak system gone. look at the nine-day planner. we jump right back into the 60s by the end of next week and maybe into the 70s by the following week, so not too shabby for february. beautiful scene coming in out of the high country, but you can see the areas of snow and blowing snow, something we will definitely be dealing with for much of the morning tomorrow. weather hairspray nice and handy in the weather office. >> you need a mane tamer. >> i do. >> thanks, kathy. seeing this warm weather fooled. you may notice little buds popping up around town and not the newly legal kind. it won't stay this warm forever, so what happens to our buds? we asked 9news reporter steve staeger to find out. >> buds are starting to show

think the thing that people are seeing most bloom right now would be some of the spring bulbs. >> reporter: it looks like spring is here in the mile high city, yet the calendar says otherwise and so does the forecast, rain and possibly snow next week. and protect anything that would be coming up now. >> reporter: laura heath is a professional land escaper who designed the entry garden at colorado garden and home snow. she says a little snow is a good thing. gardeners just don't want this to continue. >> if this weather continues and we have another two weeks of really warm weather, then trees and some of the shrubs will start to bud or even open up potentially and that is where we have to be careful. >> reporter: you can get some work done outside. early spring fertilizer on the lawn isn't a bad idea. a layer of snow will protect that, too and even provide some moisture and a quick rinse can save some trouble down the road.

the rocks and get away the dust and weed seeds that have blown in. this is like their rock mulch or dry creek beds and those things that will keep weed propagation down. >> reporter: if you still have snow on your lawn that's been there for months, he said look out for snow mold. >> there's no air, no light getting to the grass that's below or the flowerbeds that's below. this week should have taken care of that, but there's still probably some yards out there. >> reporter: take a broom handle and poke holes into the snow to increase the air flow and don't worry, planting weather will be here before you know it. on the garden beat steve staeger, 9news. >> if you're really dying to plant something, try pansies. they're a cold season flower.

from colorado sports leader here's drew soicher. >> right when it was thought i would never lead a sportscast with nascar said adele arakawa, truex, jr. crashed. it's okay. the red 78 car was sandwiched no. 20 matt kenseth shortly before the finish line. they're all wrecks, no injuries, but now marty will be a long shot in the great >> not necessarily. >> adele will be driving a backup car. if du plays colorado college as well in a baseball stadium this weekend as they did in the hockey arena tonight, the pioneers will knock it out of the park. denver scored three times in the 3rd period in colorado springs. they win 4-1. same two teams saturday night at coors field. >> i felt like it definitely was a bit of a trap game.

after a big emotional couple wins against north dakota and saturday kind of seemed like this game wasn't really on anybody's schedule, but they were big points for us. >> and scores! >> it's going to be an unbelievable experience. we've been looking forward to it all week, but we couldn't look past today. now this is out of the way we get to look forward to that and all the boys are excited. avalanche and nuggets both had the evening off. rockies held their first official spring training practice, supposed to be just pitchers and catchers, but just about everybody is there because the team encourages its players to live and train in scottsdale all winter. >> not everybody can do that. people have families and all that stuff obviously, but the guys that can do it, that can pick up and move down here and get a place, for the most part those guys have done that, you know. it's a great setup we got here.

annual state wrestling tournament. our 9news prep reporter is at the pepsi center. [ music ] >> reporter: 4a 120 pounds, greeley central's andrew alalis is now 42-0 this year, same classification, new weight and already getting set for a possible showdown for two returning state champs. pueblo county's grant willis. >> you got to prepare always for the worst. you got to prepare for everything. you got to expect to get taken down sometimes even. you just got to know that you've done everything that you could to be able to win a match. >> reporter: in the 132-pound

title jason marvel pinned his opponent. pinkly is one step closer to making his goal finals in the 5a 120. >> i want to finish up the rest of the two days i have left. i qualified. so this year my goal is to hopefully take it or be in the finals. >> reporter: some of those wrestlers won't get a whole lot of rest. quarterfinals start tomorrow at 10 a.m. we'll have the results and highlights for you at 5:00. well are going to play drew's clues. >> yea! >> please keep it down. clue no. 1, born february 18th, 1944 in prairie du chien, wisconsin, celebrating his 72nd birthday. no. 2, in 1984 he purchased the denver broncos for $71 million. no. 3, 32 years later the team has three super bowl championships

the answer is broncos owner pat bowlen. isn't that great? >> great picture. >> that's the best picture of pat bowlen. >> he looks like a boss.

that is it for drew's nascar report and kathy's trip through the wind tunnel. tonight show next, jimmy has