Melting snow reveals cars buried for months in Boston

SOMERVILLE, Mass. (WPVI) -- Summerlike temperatures are finally chipping away at a massive mound of snow in the Boston area.

But it's not the size of the pile that has people stopping to look, it's what's underneath.

In Somerville, Massachusetts, the melting snow has turned into a tourist attraction as it slowly reveals several cars that have been buried for months.

City plow crews ran out of places to put snow during back‑to‑back major winter storms earlier this year. Rather than divert manpower to tow vehicles the city had deemed abandoned, officials opted to bury them instead. Six cars were covered in total.

Now, the thaw has become something of a large‑scale science experiment.

Observers estimate each vehicle has been under the equivalent of about 60,000 pounds of pressure. As the snow melts away, crowds have gathered to see what happens next -- whether the cars will collapse, shift or have their windows shatter.

There are now entire online communities keeping tabs on how this plays out.