Jan. 17-Stuart-Patrick County Schools will close at noon today due to expected snow this afternoon. All school activities are cancelled for this afternoon and evening, anticipating the first snow of the season.

Claudville's Trinity Christian School will close at noon today as well. Temperatures are expected to drop significantly this afternoon. Source: Martinsville Bulletin Snow likely in area Thursday Up to 4 inches expected Thursday, January 17, 2013 By MICKEY POWELL - Bulletin Staff Writer Three days after the temperature in Martinsville was 72 degrees, the first major blast of wintry precipitation this season is forecast. The National Weather Service has placed Henry County and Martinsville under a winter weather advisory from noon today until 1 a.m. Friday. Up to 4 inches of snow is expected this afternoon and tonight — enough to make driving hazardous, the advisory stated. Locally, a 2-inch accumulation is more likely, a meteorologist said. Patrick County is under a winter storm warning through the same period. Up to 8 inches of snow may fall there, with higher totals at some higher elevations, the weather service reported. The heaviest snow is expected to be along and west of the Blue Ridge Mountains, according to meteorologists. A low-pressure system is forecast to move from Mississippi this morning to off the North Carolina coast by Friday morning, bringing rain that will change to snow from northwest to southeast across the region, the advisory said. Peter Corrigan, a hydrologist at the Blacksburg weather service office, said forecasters actually do not expect much snow accumulation in Southside — perhaps as much as 2 inches overall in the Martinsville area.