Better bundle up this weekend! (Getty Images)

As of Saturday, 16 deaths have been recorded due to what law enforcement officials are referring to as “weather-related incidents.” 

The first snowstorm of the New Year, Hercules has spread from the Midwest up to northern New England. Temperatures are 15-20 degrees colder that usual for this time of year. 

"All the ingredients are there for a near-record or historic cold outbreak,” Weather Bell meteorologist Ryan Maue told the Associated Press. "If you're under 40 [years old], you've not seen this stuff before."

New Jersey and New York declared states of emergency Thursday afternoon, and the mayor of Boston declared a snow emergency shortly after. 

The suburbs surrounding Chicago and Boston received the brunt of the snowfall—with as much as 23 inches in the past three days.  

Snow days and plane delays have been issued in many of the affected areas.  A “polar vortex,” caused by a counterclockwise-rotating pool of dense, frigid air originating at the North Pole has been the cause of the record-breaking cold, according to a meteorologist who spoke with the Associated Press. 

The weather is expected to get even colder on Sunday—falling as low as 70 degrees below zero. 

Read here for a state-by-state update of the affected areas. 

Even if they are complaining about being cooped up in doors for the next several days, the East Coasters certainly know that snow days are a good reason to break out their cameras...or their phones. 

Contact Executive Producer Sara Newman here. Follow her on Twitter.