near 60 downtown. planning to follow the pope from the embassy from the downtown and over to the capitol, 60 at 7:00 a.m., 64 at 8:00 a.m. and 67 when he arrives on the ground. later i'll talk about the afternoon and the weekend. >> thank you, chuck. as pope francis addresses the congress, he'll talk climate change. megan, tell me more about this event. >> reporter: they're expecting thousands of people to attend this rally and concert. it's quite a backdrop. if you look behind me, you see the u.s. capitol behind me here, the dome set up. if you pan to the right, here's where it will take place near the mall on third street. pope francis talked about the issue of climate c{>v in his

papal encyclical back in june. people are energized. they hope he continues his attention on the issue. yesterday the pope raised climate change again when he spoke at the white house. let's take a look. >> it seems clear to me also that climate change is a problem change can no longer be left to our future generation. >> reporter: later they're going to gave on the mall for the rally and concert. it's going to be happening at the same time, or at least a part of it will be happening while the pope is speaking to congress. and those gathered here are calling on lawmakers to pass legislation to protect the environment, to follow the lead of pope francis. now, artists participants

include a few of the highlights. it will be that they're going to perform a song called "love song to the earth." it will be around noon at the national mall. it's open and free to the public. back to you all in the studio. >> thank you so much, megan. now, after pope francis wraps up his address at the capitol, he's heading to st. francis and then catholic charities. both st. patrick's and catholic charities have been polishing for months and months. while at catholic charities, the pope will be speaking to about 200 in spanish. they represent more than 120,000 men, women, and children served by catholic charities of the archdiocese of washington every year. the pope will also walk down with cardinal wuerl and the

pastor chris. >> you can call the visit with catholic charities the grand finally, and everyone there is excited about today's rally, especially the leadership. a chance to meet the pope has father john enzler smiling from ear to ear. >> it's a chance to feed the poor with the pope and aren't i lucky. >> it's not just the workers who are excited to meet the pope. so are some of the people catholic charities serve. hear from them still ahead this half hour. of course, each of these convenience we told you about will test metro again. we know a lot of you plan to use the system today. here are a couple of tips to make that trip a little bit easier. buy your fare card before you go to the station. leave restricted items at home, things like chairs and coolers. there will be long lines. be aware security can search

your bag at any time. how well is the visit with the pope going? our answer as our coverage coops. right now let's take a look outside. it niece the 50s for you. the kids will probably want a little jacket in the morning. but what's going on in the afternoon? and remember to download the nbcwashington app for everything you want to know about the pope's visit including the major

back to our papal visit coverage. thereafter they will head to the capitol chamber, the house chamber for the pope's address. lawmakers are being told to limit their handshakes and side conversations with the pope as he enters. with more on this morning's veejts, let's get to aaron gilchrist on the east side of the capitol. that's a tough task not to want to talk to the pope and shake his hand. i wonder if the politicians will be able to heed those rules. >> reporter: speaker boehner sent letters to all members of congress to say just that, that they shouldn't try to reach out and stop the pope as he's moving down the aisle there. this will be much like the state of the union address when the president enters without those handshakes. this is a very tight schedule he's going to be keeping today,

trying to meet with the speaker and then move on to catholic charities where he's going to spend some time with folks who receive services there. so when he arrives there on the east front, which is what we expect later on this morning, he will very quickly move through the process before he goes out to the speaker's balcony before he's expected to meet those who are gathered on the lawn. we're back here where the pope will enter from this area. a very busy day for the pope just ahead of us, and we're going to have much more for you at the top of the hour. >> all right, aaron. thanks so much. just in here at the live desk a man is dead after a motorcycle crash in montgomery county. police were chasing a bike. we're not sure why they were chasing the bike, but they called maryland state police to

be on the lookout. about five minutes later javier crashed his bike on the map there. he had somehow lost control of the bike and was thrown from it. police right now are still investigating exactly what happened. >> thank you, kristin. all right, let's take another look at our weather. chuck bell served up a spectacular first day. >> i have to admit, chuck. it does not get nicer than that. what a way to kick off fall. >> right out of the park. did you see that? >> yeah. >> a swing from someone ha w.h.o. has terrible eye-hand coordination. if you didn't get a chance to get out and enjoy it, today will be a carbon copy today. a little clouds, but nothing that will bother anybody. temperatures are in the cool 40s and 50s from the county out to shenandoah valley. near 60 in washington.

i thinking about the bus stop. into the low 60s between 8:00 and 9:00. recess again gets an "a," could be an a-plus. new problems on the road for melissa right now. >> new problems right now. this one in ashton. this one has been shut down for some time. we just called and checked. it's still closed. route 108 near wainwright road, a fuel spill. that's why it's taking so long. in bethesda south 355. outer loop at the american legion bridge. a big look at the beltway and the inner loop and outer loop. of course, lots of road closures downtown. we'll talk about those. southbound massachusetts avenue

still shut down for the vatican until 4:00. >> thank you, melissa. how they receive their hands on the lucky ticket. >> and we're not the only one celebrating a papal

if you want to see the pope on the west lawn of the capitol, you will need a ticket, and they're hard to come by. congresswoman eleanor norris norton put up her 50 tickets and snagged 35 more from fellow members and house leaders. to be fair in giving them out, she had a lottery anded a had a high school senior pick from a jar filled with the names of 150 d.c. residents. >> i can't believe that 450 members and senators all have people who are going to get here

and come. but that may mean i'm underestimating how attractive this pope is. >> the tickets are standing room only, so they'll have to be out there early this morning if twhanlt to get a spot to watch the pope on the jumbotron. today the pope will offer a very generous gift to the library of congress. it's a handwritten illustration of the bible made in 2011. it's believed to be the first of its kind since the prinltsing press was invented. it's been valued at $8 million. >> ooh. that will be nice. both maryland's governor and d.c.'s mayor will attend the pope's address to congress as well as his stop to catholic charities. and governor larry hogan who's battling cancer is going to ask for a special blessing for all

those with a disease. he spent five days in the hospital. mayor bowser was also among the ticketed guests at the white house yesterday. it was a political who's who on the south lawn to welcome pope francis. >> we got a chance to have a quick glimpse of the pope. that was a tremendous experience for me to represent my hometown on that occasion. he's going with with us tomorrow at catholic charities, and as you know catholic charities provides a lot of services to the poor in the district. i think the pope's pope calls on all of us to help those less fortunate than we to help them. >> reporter: she was able to bring her mother along with her. this was in the midday prayer service at the cathedral. this was with the bishop in

northwest washington. and after pope francis meets with members of congress, he'll have what may be the smallest and most intimate part of his trip. he'll visit catholic charities where he'll share lunch and meet with some of d.c.'s homeless. >> they're the smallest and maybe the most important because he actually gets to interact with people currently on the streets who are struggling. >> pope francis seems to live the message. he seems to want to be often in the company of those who are vulnerable. and about 200 homeless will be fed by sachint maria and the bless a jesus statue and them return to the embassy. for the last time you'll have to work around the lanes. they'll reverse direction an hour earlier. they'll switch to southbound at 11:00 a.m. and the sbb express lanes will open at noochblt they'll be back to normal

tomorrow. we know a lot of you are using metro to get to and from today's papal event. so far, no problems. crowds poured into the brookland station. you can see how packed the platform and entrances were. but trains came every three to five minutes. buses were there to take riders to fort totten. >> there are ways to follow him around the city. take look at this. social media, of course, is your hot ticket. lots of you are posting your photos with the pontiff. some of you posted selfies. we're following everything with twitter handles @pontiff and #popeindc. take a look at this. twitter shows a lot of lawmakers getting involved.

people all around the city addressing the papal visit. we're expecting more tweets from speak joern boehner and the former lawmakers on the hill. don't forget. always follow nbc washington on twitter and facebook for reaction pouring in, both positive and negative. eun? >> thank you, angie. however these last few days have affected you, you're in the last 12 hours of the papal visit in washington. he'll say his good-byes and leave at 3:00 this afternoon. you'll want to avoid massachusetts avenue as he leaves. he'll be back to the air base to leave. millions are in the area. that means a lot of security. there's an eight-foot chain link fence. ups says deliveries of

iphone 6s may not be made available during the pope's visit. be sure to follow jim on facebook and twig e. he'll have live reports you can watch right here and on the nc washington app. >> he's not the only one traveling. you're going to be traveling. >> that's right. i'll be heading to philadelphia for live reports and it's going to be really exciting. they're expecting upwards of 2 million people in philadelphia. >> eun's going to have to walk five blocks in her heels to get to her hotel. >> miles. miles. usually the joke is i don't wear sneakers unless i'm working out, which is not enough. >> pat collins may have afternoon extra pair. >> i need his hat too. pretty good weather expected in new york. your weekend in philadelphia look as little iffy. >> uh-oh. >> but it looks like we're not going to have beg rainstorms.

i couldn't give a 100% dry forecast for you in philly. more importantly or weekend around here as well. most people are going to be poped out by the time they get to tomorrow. >> maybe they'll want to stay inside. >> they're going to want to have a nice relaxing weekend. we can provide that, but we may not be able to proside a whole lot in the way of sunshine for saturday and sunday. for today and tomorrow, thoerks nothing really to worry about. 61 degrees in washington now with a north breeze at 6:00. another cool morning. tons of sunshine coming our way. another winner for all outdoor plans this morning and this afternoon. right now it's a chilly 50 in fredericksburg, 40 in luray. you could have a little patchy fog this morning. temperatures in the mid to upper 50s. a 7:00 a.m. start, temperatures in the mid to upper 50s. 74 at noontime and 76 this

evening by 6:00 by the time everything is settling down. all the moisture across the carolinas, that's gradually going to inch its way farther and farther up the coast. that will bring clouds back into our skies tonight and tomorrow and an opportunity for a little light rain late friday night into the first part of your saturday. here's future weather. nothing to worry about today. clouds come back in on us early in the day tomorrow. it will be a mostly cloudy friday. here's 4:00 tomorrow afternoon. still mainly just clouds around but opportunities for a couple of light sprinkles. fredericksburg, northern maryland, that's as early as sundown tomorrow. still more clouds than anything, but there may be a little light rain or drizzle because of that nearly wind flow. temperatures will be a little cooler than it's been. tomorrow looks great, increasing clouds and a chance for showers south of town by tomorrow

evening. here's your seven-day forecast. an opportunity for showers both saturday and sunday. no heavy rain this weekend, but lots of clouds and opportunities for rain showers. coming up at the top of the hour we'll get back into the details of the pope's forecast. for today a check back on traffic with melissa. >> good morning. looking good. we'll talk about the closures inside the beltway in just a second. 66 east of compton, no probes eastbound or webb. northbound and southbound looking good. remember to live to our friends on wtop 103.5 f.m. when you hop in your car. now around the capitol here's what's closed until noon today because of the pope's arrival. constitution avenue between second and third street. third between c street northwest and southwest and first screen

between massachusetts avenue northeast and d street southeast. with we're going to talk about the metro issues for today and this morning coming up in a couple of minutes. >> thanks, melissa. we're following a developing story in maryland where a home has been blown off the face of the earth. the details that continue to trick this morning. >> we're learning abonew information about an officer who fired on a man. and she stole the show during the pope's parade and now we're hearing from this little 5-year-old girl.

and you're looking live right now at the capitol where the pope is expected to address congress later this morning. the pope will address congress about a number of issues that he touched upon at the arrival ceremony at the white house yesterday. and as many as 40,000 people are also expected to rally on what they're calling moral action on climate change, and the pope at the white house did say yesterday that climate change is an issue that we can no longer leave for future generations. so it will be interesting to see what he has to say about that and we'll have full coverage here on nc 4 tod nbc 4 today. >> it will be quite the crowd. this morning there is

nothing left of a house after massive explosion. the view from chopper 4 right now of the scene following the explosion last night. kristin write has the latest on this explosion. kristin, what do we know right now? >> right now we don't know much, but what we do know is two people were hurt and had to be taken to the hospital. let's take a look at the pictures from chopper 4. it was a big explosion, caused lots of destruction, six homes. it happened around 7:30. a baltimore electric and gas employee was at the house smelling gas and then the explosion went off. it was that worker and another person in same home that ended up in in the hospital. they're expected to be okay. police shot a man they say was creeping in the bushes outside a virginia woman's home on lake drive in manassas. investigators say he raised a

crowbar at a prince william county police officer. that officer pepper sprayed him. police say he ran and then threatened the officer again with the crowbar. according to police, that is when the officer fired. >> how many shots did you hear fired? >> two shots rapidly, one after the other, bam, bam. >> the detectives will question the suspect some time after he recovers. they want to know what he was doing by the woman's home. they say the two don't know each other. the office of personnel management now believe more than 5.5 million people had their fingerprint data stolen. security thinks it's chinese espionage and it affects a total of 20 million current and former job applicants. president obama plans to talk about cyber security when he meets with china's president this week.

that have not blamed china or taken any action on this one. a california congressman wants pope francis to win the nobel peace price. before meeting with congress today adam shift will generate a letter to fellow lawmakers asking for their support in nominating the pontiff. representative schist says he should be promoted on his pleas for peace. this morning the little girl's kiss yesterday is becoming a symbol. her name is sophie cruz. she's 5. she was born in the u.s. but her parents are from mexico. they came to washington from los angeles to deliver this message. >> i would like you do ask to speak with the president and congress in utilizing my parents because everything i am here, but one day they will take them away from me.

>> sophie gave pope francis this picture and a yellow t-shirt. she said her parents and others deserve reform because it will benefit all children like her. >> so sweet. at first i didn't think they were going to let her go to the popemobile. >> they started shooing her away and the pope went like this. >> and you were in live coverage when he kissed the baby? >> those moments make my day. >> it fills your heart. there's such a warmth and feeling yesterday. you could not look at the faces in the crowd and have that extraordinary feeling. >> and the pope's face. >> that's what ignites him is interacting with the people. >> for sure. >> stay with us. the news continues at 5:00 a.m. starting this hour with a live look at the capitol now where pope francis is waking up for a second day in a row in the u.s., and he will address congress this morning. and on the list h