Massive pile of melting snow reveals crushed DPW car in Massachusetts. Why the city says vehicles were buried on purpose

The Somerville Department of Public Works (DPW) says this car is inoperable and awaiting disposal. With back-to-back major snow storms this year, they didn't want to divert storm resources to move it. With dwindling places to put snow, burying the car was their best choice. (WBZ via CNN Newsource)

SOMERVILLE, Massachusetts -- Neighbours and Reddit enthusiasts are making their way to Somerville, Massachusetts to check out a city vehicle crushed under a mountain of dirty snow in a lot on Washington Street. The city says the car is one of six under the snowpack, and it was done on purpose.

“I spotted it on Reddit, on a Boston subreddit post, and it hit pretty quick and furious,” said Ian Greenhalgh. He wasn’t sure if the image he saw online was AI, so he came to the lot to confirm its legitimacy. “Hopefully I have done my due diligence for the community here,” he said.

City says cars were inoperable

The Somerville Department of Public Works says these cars are inoperable and awaiting disposal. With back-to-back major snow storms this year, they didn’t want to divert storm resources to move the cars. With dwindling places to put snow, burying them was their best choice.

“I don’t think they are going to drive that thing again. I mean, I think those are gone,” said John Neely, who came to take a photo of the car stuck in the snow pile. “It’s an interesting science experiment to have in your neighbourhood, so I am just going to keep watching it.”

How long until snow pile melts?

So how long will this spectacle stay with temperatures rising?

“We have seen snow piles last into June, and even July in some years,” said WBZ Weather Executive Producer Terry Eliasen. “That top layer of snow acts as a cold dome over the top of it, so you need a lot of heat energy to melt something like that.”

Eliasen says white snow will melt slower because it reflects the sun. The snow pile in the junk lot is extremely dark and covered in filth and debris.

“If you have dirtier snow, dark colors absorb sunlight, so the sunlight would actually melt it quicker, but you’re talking about 10 feet of dark snow densely packed in one giant cube of ice,” said Eliasen.

When he and the WBZ weather team talk about snowpacks on rooftops, they say there’s roughly three pickup trucks worth of weight for two feet of wet snow. If there is 10 feet of snow on top of these cars, that could be 15 pickup trucks worth of weight.

“That car has 50,000 to 60,000 lbs. (of snow) at least on top of it, so it may be so encased in ice. Once it starts melting, it will just collapse,” said Eliasen. “The amount of weight on that car is colossal.”

“It’s free Boston entertainment basically,” said Neely.

By Mike Sullivan