I think this is more common than we realize. Meaning, the public's perception of total snowfall compared to that of the observer (or even weenie).
This is my 4th winter doing obs for GYX. Friends around town will ask me how much we got, and each year, for almost every event, their response when I tell them the amount is the same: "that's it?"
People perceive a 4" event to be 6", or 10.5" to be 13". And that's in a place that, for the most part, see's less variability than your locale in term of amounts across a geographical area.