A home without power in Argyle, TexasChris Rusanowsky/Zuma

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If you’re reading this in Texas, chances are you’re huddled over your phone in a cold, dark home, using cell service to access the internet.

More than 3 million people in the Lone Star State—and tens of thousands more in states including Louisiana and Mississippi—are without power thanks to a winter storm that has battered a normally balmy region and killed more than 30 people. Scientists say that human-caused climate change is partly responsible for the extreme southern sweep of the polar vortex; the warming Arctic could be disrupting the jet stream and sending that cold air where it doesn’t normally go. Even record-breaking cold is a sign that the climate is out of whack and a harbinger of extreme weather to come.

A bit of good news: Good samaritans in Texas have rescued 3,500 sea turtles from the cold. They’re staying at the South Padre Island Convention Center.

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