Monitoring of cloudiness in the function of the forests fire protection

Abstract

Fires in forests are seasonal in nature, conditioned by the moisture content of the fuel material. The emergence of these fires in Serbia is becoming more common and depending on the intensity and duration, fires  have a major impact on the state of vegetation. The aim of this study was to determine the correlation between  dynamics of cloudiness occurrence and forest fires. To study the correlation of these elements, Pearson correlation coefficients were used. The analysis is based on the meteorological data obtained from meteorological station Negotin for the period from 1991 to 2010. Among the tested influences, the degree of cloudiness showed positive correlative interdependence with the dynamics of fire occurrence in nature. The annual number of fires correlates positively with the average number of clear days (ρ = 0.25). Also, it was found that the annual number of fires with medium intensity, correlated negatively with the average number of cloudy days  (ρ = –0.26), but not statistically significant (p > 0.05).