weathering the storm?

Well it looks like it will be a snowy weekend where I am at. But I still don't get the hype invested in "stormy" weather.The fact that pretty much any weather event is labelled, still baffles me. It's like people are looking to have the general public in a constant state of alert about everything. For example, the "storm" that is forecast to bring snow this weekend is called Harper. Now it does sound like where I am at will get a good bit of snow - and of course I realize that a system can track further in one direction or another and thereby reduce or increase how much snow actually accumulates, but the hyper state of arousal is amplified as the forecast is running anywhere from 1 - 3" of snow, to 4 - 8" of snow,to 6 - 12" of snow, and even 12" of snow.....
Times do change, when I was a child, 1 - 2" of snow wasn't considered a MAJOR event..now it IS?
School rarely was cancelled or delayed unless the roads were very treacherous