Erring on the side of caution is all fine and good, but it can be taken a bit too far from time to time.

Case in point: the curious matter of calling “snow emergencies” whenever the slightest hint of a flurry makes the evening news weather forecast.

Schools are closed and parking restrictions are put into effect. Unnecessarily so, as many would argue.

To be fair, this better safe than sorry approach may serve us well on occasion – if rare those occasions may be. Still, when it comes to the safety of our kids, there are few who wouldn’t make reasonable sacrifices to ensure their security and wellbeing. It’s just terribly frustrating when the dire “emergencies” are declared and little more comes of it than a wisp of powdery topping.

It’s as difficult a situation for our civic leaders as it is for us, in many ways. They have to take the heat whenever nature threatens a disaster that doesn’t actually materialize. Everybody ends up with egg on their faces, when you stop to think about it.

Predicting the weather is just about as voodoo-like now as it has ever been. An imperfect science at best, a fool’s chore at its worst.

The revenues generated from parking fines and the profits seen by towing companies are just about the only positives realized in all this. Hardly fair for the majority of us, though. That’s the worst part.