Somerville pulls buried cars — yes, cars! — out of giant snow pile

It’s not uncommon to uncover gritty bits of debris and trash when massive piles of snow from a long winter finally melt. But something unusual is emerging from one pile in East Somerville.

Cars.

Don’t worry — it’s not what it looks like.

During what turned out to be the snowiest winter in a decade for the Boston area, many cities struggled with what to do with all the accumulating snow. Often, the solution is to dump it all in one big pile (or a few). But during the second major storm in February, Somerville — one of the most densely populated cities in New England — was running out of room. So, “an emergency decision was made” to push snow farther back on a city-owned lot at 90 Washington St., according to Grace Munns, a spokesperson for Somerville Mayor Jake Wilson’s office.

That meant blowing snow from the first storm onto a fleet of “non-operable” city-owned cars that were waiting to be “junked,” Munns said in an email Wednesday.

The cars remained covered for months. As The Boston Globe reported Tuesday, a total of six vehicles were partially or fully covered by the snow. Now, as the temperatures warm and the giant pile (not far from the Green Line Extension’s East Somerville station) slowly melts, people have begun to notice.

A viral post Monday on Reddit first pointed out one smushed-looking Ford Escape with Somerville's Department of Public Works logo, half-covered by the pile — to much amusement.

“Hey boss, I found that car we've been missing for 4 months," one commenter joked.

“This is bad for the car,” another deadpanned.

Munns stressed that the cars were headed to the scrapyard anyway and were “not privately owned resident vehicles or working vehicles.” While the city could have towed the cars out of the way, Munns said that would have required diverting tow trucks away from an important use in the midst of the snowstorm: “towing improperly parked vehicles from roadways to maintain clearance for emergency vehicles and plows.”

“While the circumstances were highly unusual, the priority at the time was clearing snow quickly and safely during one of the most severe winter weather periods in recent memory,” she said.

Workers could be seen at the lot Wednesday morning working to pull additional vehicles, including a van, out of the frozen mass. However, the city declined to provide a timeline for what's next. As past examples have shown, these big snow piles can take surprisingly long to melt (due to the science of latent heat).

Ironically, the buried cars were garnering notice the same week that Somerville is drawing attention to the 90 Washington St. lot for a different reason. The city is planning to sell the nearly 4-acre property, primely located near an MBTA stop, for redevelopment. On Monday, officials asked for public feedback on recently received proposals, ahead of a meeting next week.

The city says proposals are expected to be available to review this Friday.