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Ken Still of Tifton shared his son's trio of snowmen (one of which is acrobatic) in a "snowman contest" thread on the Facebook group, "Let's Talk Tifton."

TIFT SNOWFALL TOTALS 5 INCHES, BREAKS RECORD

By FRANK SAYLES JR.

Tifton Grapevine

Tuesday and Wednesday's winter storm left 5 inches of snow in Tifton and Tift County, according to preliminary snowfall totals from the National Weather Service.

In Ashburn, 6.5 inches of snow was recorded, the weather service reported.

Tifton's snowfall shattered all records. Before this week, Tifton's largest snowfall was previously recorded at 2.2 inches in 1934, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

The Great Snowfall of 2025, dubbed "Winter Storm Enzo," is considered a once-in-a-lifetime event for the Tiftarea, and for areas of Alabama and Louisiana that had snow totals exceeding 10 inches. Northern Florida even saw snow, along with Charleston and Myrtle Beach, S.C.

"What made this most memorable is how far south the snow made it. Places like Florida and Louisiana got heavy snow, but places like North Georgia did not," weather.com senior meteorologist Dina Knightly said. "Some cities in the South have more snow this season than some cities in the North."

While much of the snow around the Tiftarea is now melting, overnight temperatures below freezing continues to cause some issues for motorists. Drivers need to be particularly aware of the potential for black ice, a thin, clear layer of ice that forms on roads and other surfaces and is difficult to detect, said the Ga. Department of Transportation.

Both the City of Tifton and Tift County said Thursday that roads are now mostly back to normal. "Please continue to be cautious in your driving, as there may be some shaded streets, parking areas, and sidewalks that may still have ice and snow build-up," the City of Tifton advised.

Tift County Schools are resuming today after being closed since Tuesday afternoon. The school system said it made the determination after communication with the Tift County Emergency Management Agency, local law enforcement, and the Tift County Road Department.

Tiftarea Academy remains closed today and plans to resume classes Monday. "Although Tift County conditions and roads are mostly back to normal, we have families traveling from eight other counties. Secondary roads and roads with large shaded areas will continue to experience ice in the morning due to below freezing temperatures," the Chula school noted on social media.

On Thursday, the Ga. Department of Transportation (GDOT) continued to treat ice on state roads around the region. Southwest Georgia GDOT crews have applied 141,000 gallons of brine, 508.75 tons of salt, and 291.25 tons of stone to state roads and bridges since the first of the week.

Photos show scenes around the Tiftarea taken by area residents.

RECALLING EXCITEMENT OF A BIG SNOWFALL

Tifton’s record-setting snowfall has been so exciting for locals, especially those who have never personally seen so much snow. Every time I go outside now, I’m reminded of when we moved to Bluefield, W.Va., in November 1989 from Charleston, S.C., and then again when we lived in Beckley, W.Va., in the winter of 2000.

Ironically, in both instances, we only lived in West Virginia for one winter each, and both times, we left the state for Valdosta, Ga., back to summertime-type warmth after experiencing the most snow I’d ever seen in my life.

I turned 30 that first winter. In Bluefield, Frank was managing editor of the Bluefield Daily Telegraph, and I worked two jobs, a part-time position at a Christian radio station and a contract position with the Development Office of Concord College in Athens, W.Va., helping organize the kickoff of a fundraising campaign. I volunteered at the Mercer County Humane Society, taking photos of a "Pet of the Week" to be printed in the newspaper.

The drivers and movers from the Charleston, S.C., moving company getting us settled in Bluefield only wore light jackets and no gloves, and the heat wasn’t working in our new home. They didn’t say anything, but their expressions said, “Why would anyone move here from South Carolina?” That was an actual question residents asked me when they saw my car’s license plate.

As a weekend D.J. at the radio station, I marveled when I read the weather report saying the high would be 10 degrees! No one complained or batted an eye about it. Once, I called my boss at the college and said I wouldn’t be in because it was snowing. He laughed. Eventually, I learned to drive in the snow where roads were salted daily. With huge snowflakes swirling around the windshield, it felt like driving the starship Enterprise through a meteor storm.

Once, driving down the mountain from the animal shelter, my mind was on the animals and not my driving, and I drove normally rather than cautiously. I found my little red Honda Civic sliding on ice. They tell you to turn your steering wheel in the direction of your slide, which I did, although that meant toward trees overlooking a highway below. Suddenly, I slid into a space between trees. I said a thankful prayer as I watched the cars on the four-lane highway below.

When we left Bluefield in May 1990, it was still snowing! When we arrived in Valdosta, temperatures were in the 80s. This time our moving crew was impressed and said they wished they lived there.

Years later, after living in Florence, S.C., and Dalton, Ga., we again found ourselves in West Virginia when Frank accepted a position as editor of the Beckley Register-Herald. We lived in a split-level house with a spacious front yard.

On Nov. 1, 2000, it snowed enough to completely cover our lawn, which I had mowed the day before. I planned to finish raking the leaves in the front yard when the snow melted, but it never did! Day after day, November through January, snow continued to build.

That Christmas in West Virginia, 12 family members visited us for the holiday to ski at the nearby ski resort. All of them had lived in snowy climes or at least visited them long enough to learn to snow ski. They didn’t want to miss the chance to have a place to stay while skiing daily during the holiday at the nearby WinterPlace resort. 

It was the smallest home we’d lived in with the most houseguests. They slept in sleeping bags on the floor of our little dining/living room, our den, and in our son's bunk bed. I remember being on the slopes with them and observing a thermometer that read 12 degrees in the daytime, about the temperature it reached here in South Georgia the other night!

We can all enjoy this weather, knowing it will not last; it will be close to 70 next week. Our northern neighbors who came here to escape the constant cold may look bemused upon our thrill and excitement about the snow.

In the same way, as a raised-in-the-South transplant, I was able to marvel at and enjoy the never-ending snow in West Virginia, knowing that our brief stay in the Mountain State would eventually end as we relocated once again to South Georgia in January 2001. We haven't left since!

 Purchase tickets online HERE!

GDOT OK's CONTRACT FOR BEN HILL ROAD

By FRANK SAYLES JR.

Tifton Grapevine

Rehabilitation of a state road in Ben Hill County is among 21 projects recently awarded contracts from the Ga. Department of Transportation (GDOT).

State Route (SR) 182, River Road that runs west-east through northern Ben Hill County, will have 8.680 miles of milling and road-shoulder rehabilitation performed beginning at SR 11 and extending to SR 107, GDOT announced.

The $2,464,604.15 project, expected to be completed by Oct. 31, has been awarded to East Coast Asphalt of Douglas. The award to the apparent low bidder was made Dec. 6.

The Ben Hill County project represents approximately 4% of all new projects funded, which total about $55.6 million.

LONGTIME OWNER OF DOWNTOWN'S OLDEST BUSINESS DIES AT 92

By FRANK SAYLES JR.

Tifton Grapevine

A longtime business owner in Downtown Tifton died recently. Marvin Perlis, 92, who opened The Big Store on Main Street in 1955, died Jan. 18.

The Perlis family in 1910 began operating The Big Store in Cordele. Begun by Ike Perlis and his son, Isadore – Marvin's grandfather and father – the store was relocated to Tifton in 1955, with Marvin Perlis operating it.

For nearly 50 years, Perlis and his wife of 67 years, Lynette Hankin Perlis, ran The Big Store in Downtown Tifton before turning its operation over to their son Phil and his wife, Susan. The business is the oldest on Tifton's Main Street.

Marvin Perlis was a longtime board member of the Downtown Tifton Merchants Association, a longtime local peewee football coach, and an ardent supporter of the Tift County High School Blue Devils.

In recent years, he retired with his wife to Amelia Island, Fla.

PHILANTHROPIST, COMMUNITY VOLUNTEER DIES AT 99 IN TIFTON

By FRANK SAYLES JR.

Tifton Grapevine

Anita Stewart “Priss” Stovall, 99, of Tifton, who helped fund the Anita Stewart Oncology Center at Tift Regional Medical Center and was a longtime community volunteer, died Jan. 19.

A Berrien County native, Stovall had been a professional model in New York City and Atlanta, owner and director of a charm and modeling school in Columbus – where she was also a television fashion commentator – and was owner and broker of Stovall Realty Co. in Valdosta.

After her husband's death, Stovall returned to her family home in Enigma, where she served on its City Council and coached basketball. She also chaired the campaigns of two gubernatorial candidates.

Stovall served on the Tift Regional Medical Center Foundation Board of Directors, was a founder and past chair of TRMC's Candy Stripers and Pink Ladies, served on the American Cancer Society Board of Directors, on the Task Force Housing Committee for Moody Air Force Base, and on the Tourist and Convention Committee for the Valdosta-Lowndes County Chamber of Commerce.

She was a recipient of the George A. Wright Memorial Award for outstanding community service in Tifton.

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YOUR GUIDE

TO ACTIVITIES

THIS WEEKEND

IN THE GREATER TIFTAREA

Today, Friday, Jan. 24, is National Peanut Butter Day. Modern peanut butter is attributed to the doctor, nutritionist, and cereal pioneer John Harvey Kellogg, who filed a patent for a proto-peanut butter in 1895. In 1921, Joseph Rosefield filed a patent for applying a chemical process, partial hydrogenation, to peanut butter, converting the naturally occurring oil in peanut butter into an oil that’s solid or semisolid at room temperature. Rosefield founded Skippy peanut butter, which debuted crunchy peanut butter and wide-mouth jars in the 1930s.

SATURDAY, JAN. 25

• Celebration of Robert E. Lee, hosted by Georgia Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, Jefferson Davis Memorial Historic Site, Irwinville
• How to Get Started with Native Plants, 12:30 p.m., Tifton-Tift County Public Library, Tifton
• Tift County High Lady Devils basketball vs. Sumter County High girls, 6 p.m., Tift County High School, Tifton
• Tift County High Blue Devils basketball vs. Sumter County High Panthers, 7:30 p.m., Tift County High School, Tifton

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"Poderick" is a sweet boy with a kind heart and loving nature, who is patiently waiting at the shelter, dreaming of the day he’ll find his forever home. Come visit him and see other pets available for adoption at the Tift County Animal Shelter on Highway 125 South, open between 1-6 p.m. Mondays through Fridays. For additional information, call 229-382-PETS (7387).