This is the moment a dad returned home from grocery shopping - wading waist-deep through snow after a ferocious winter storm battered large swaths of North America.

Sindi, from Toronto, Canada, filmed the scene on Sunday (Jan 25), capturing her father clutching a bag of groceries in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other as he fought through snow that reached halfway up his body.

The snowfall came as part of a massive winter system - Winter Storm Fern - that has unleashed historic conditions across Canada and the United States.

In southern Ontario, the storm dumped record-breaking amounts of snow, with up to 61 cm (24 inches) reported in parts of downtown Toronto.

The blizzard-like conditions triggered flight cancellations, hazardous travel, school closures and major snow-clearing operations.

South of the border, Winter Storm Fern has brought heavy snow and ice across dozens of US states, grounding flights and knocking out power for hundreds of thousands.