The Fires in Serbian Forests: The Influence of Teleconnections

The links between forest fires in Serbia and teleconnections were investigated. The North Atlantic Oscillation (two versions), the Arctic Oscillation, the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation, the Mediterranean Oscillation (two versions), and several other indices were used in the calculations. The data on the burned area (ha) and the damage to wood mass (m3) for the period 1970-2022 were also used. The highest values of the correlation coefficient were obtained for the damage to wood mass. As for NAO1 (on the basis of the difference in sea surface air pressure between Island - low air pressure and the Azores - high), the highest value was obtained for NAO1 April (0.316, p ≤ .05). In the calculation with NAO2 (the normalized pressure difference between Gibraltar and Reykjavik), it was for NAO2 February (0.337, p ≤ .05). The highest values with AO were for AO March (0.353, p ≤ .05) and AO spring (0.378, p ≤ .01). In the case of MO, better results were obtained with MOI2 (Gibraltar's Northern Frontier and Lod Airport in Israel): MOI2 February (0.365, p ≤ .01). For the application of the obtained results in forest fire forecasting, more detailed research is necessary.