Snow is a big deal for those of us in Alabama.

In Alabama, snow is usually a “will it or won’t it” affair, and many Alabamians have had the experience of waking up and pulling back the curtains in anticipation of what could be outside. It could be a winter wonderland — or gray disappointment.

Wes Wyatt, the chief meteorologist for WBRC-TV in Birmingham, knows all about that, because he’s lived it too. Many times. And it helped to shape a lifelong love of all things weather.

A west Alabama native, Wyatt grew up anticipating what each winter would bring.

And he chronicles some of those big snow days in a new book, titled: “Bread, Milk and a Chance of Snow,” which is available from Crest Publishers.

“… I try to think back as far as I can go. And the things that just really stand out were snow events in my childhood,” Wyatt said. “And I just remember being a kid in the classroom waiting on the first snowflake to fall.”

Wyatt grew up in a time when the weather forecast wasn’t available 24/7 and was must-see TV at night — especially when snow was in the forecast.

“You know … we come from a time where you would watch the local news, the entire family in the evening,” he said. “You were eagerly waiting to see what was coming up in the weather forecast, right? I just remember that excitement and that buildup. I kind of compare it to when you were so excited to listen to your favorite band. A new CD came out. You’re ripping off the wrapping before you could even get to the vehicle, right?”

The magic words for a young Wyatt, like a lot of Alabama kids, were “chance of snow.”

“And I’ve thought a lot about it and I really think that’s where this kind of sparked this interest in weather for me as a kid in Alabama because it just doesn’t happen all the time,” he said.

Another more recent winter weather even spawned the idea for the book, he said.

It was back in 2017 when he was working at WBRC with Meteorologist J-P Dice. He called it a “marathon shift of winter weather.”

“It started on Monday. There was a winter weather threat. And I remember we were alerting about a snow chance on Wednesday that could impact the area.”

But instead it snowed on Tuesday.

“It wasn’t Snowmageddon, but it was a surprise,” he said. “And that’s all we heard about. Forget the one we forecasted on Monday, the one we forecast on Wednesday. But that’s just the daily routine and the expectation of us to provide that weather information, to deliver that weather information.”

But it was more than that. Thanks to social media, during that event Wyatt got inundated with questions and comments, most asking excitedly “Is it going to snow?”

“And … it just did not stop,” he said. “And I just remember telling J-P, I said, ‘This is wild. I’ve never seen anything like this.’ Just the amount of response and emails and questions we were receiving.”

After all that, a worn-out Wyatt returned home and attempted to get some rest. But it was not to be.

“And for some reason, something compelled me that weekend to just start typing about it and telling the story like a journal. And I ended up typing three chapters,” he said.

It was a while later when Crest Publishers reached out to Wyatt and asked ”would you be interested in writing a book?”

“And I said, funny enough, I started writing a book a while back and it was about the craziness of snow in Alabama,” Wyatt said. “ … I love the craziness, right? I love the snow and the chance of snow. So I wrote the book and I said, what better title for the book other than ‘Bread, Milk and the Chance of Snow?’”

In the book Wyatt looks back on his childhood love of weather “and then all the craziness that goes into when you call for snow in Alabama. And I share some of my experiences in the book to hopefully appeal to everyone, to bring back memories for those that are fans of snow, to share some of the exciting and fun science about snow, but to also share some lessons learned … because this is special to this region.”

One of his fondest memories is of a snow day when he was a kid.

“One of my best memories is just, well first off, my mother waking me up in the morning and hearing her voice, and she’s no longer with us … and just the memories of her and my younger brother and when they would say, (look) out the window because you knew it was a surprise. And you looked out and you saw everything’s covered in snow and you knew there was no school. The world came to a stop at that time.”

Wyatt also touches on the 1993 “Storm of the Century,” ice storms, and, yes, the 2014 “Snowpocalypse,” which paralyzed part of Alabama with icy roads and extremely cold temperatures.

What does he hope readers get out of his book?

“Well, the one thing that I hope people can take away from the book is the love for weather,” he said.

“Because I know a lot of folks out there, a lot more people love the winter weather in Alabama than we realize. I have people that reach out to me and they’ll say, well, I don’t want it to snow. And then when it doesn’t snow, they’re like, well, I thought you said it was going to snow. I’m like, sounds to me like you wanted snow. So I think there’s a lot more folks out there that get excited about it.”

Wyatt also talks about all that goes into putting together a weather forecast.

“But I guess the one big thing, the one big thing to come away from this book is to know that we are meteorologists and we use tools to our advantage to try to deliver you the best forecast possible. And just know that even in today’s world, that there’s still room for error. … So it’s extremely challenging, but I hope out of this book, folks can really gather a renowned appreciation for how complex these forecasts are. And wow, it really is amazing we’re able to do that.

“When you think about it and you think about every morning across this country, meteorologists go out with weather balloons and all kinds of weather elements, twice a day. And hurricane hunters and the military flying into hurricanes to gather data so we can tell you it’s going to be sunny on Friday with a high of 90 degrees. Well, we don’t think about those days, but there’s so much that goes into developing these weather forecasts. And even for me, I look back and look at how the science has changed from when I started in this business over 20 years ago.”

Wyatt said he feels like he’s learned a lot from covering Alabama weather for decades.

“I think we have some of the craziest weather in the entire world, he said.”

Get “Bread, Milk and a Chance of Snow” here.