Dr Renno and research scientist Natalia Andronova predict that for every 3.6°F that the Earth's surface temperature warms, the destructive force of an intense storm could rise by as much as 10%.

This has an obvious impact on shipping and coastal defences, where some routes will become more prone to sudden and violent atmospheric changes. In the UK, the Marine Climate Change Impacts Partnership (MCCIP) has already noted that marine air and sea surface temperatures have been rising at a similar rate to land air temperature, but with strong regional variations.

For example, warming is notably faster in the English Channel and southern North Sea than within Scottish continental shelf waters, although a recent rise in temperature is also evident in waters of the upper 1,000m of the North Atlantic. Seven of the 10 warmest years since records began in 1870 have occurred in the last decade.

This ties in with the warnings given at the recent International symposium on the effects of climate change on the world’s oceans, where Dr John Rees of the British Geological Society suggested that the focus of natural scientists should increasingly be on how coasts respond to storms, a subject that has been substantially neglected because of high observational costs.

However, Dr Renno's model could also allow scientists to more accurately calculate the maximum expected intensity of a spiralling storm based on the depth of the troposphere (the lowest layer of the atmosphere) and the temperature and humidity of the air in the storm's path.

This equation improves upon current methods, Dr Renno says, because it takes into account the energy feeding the storm system and the full measure of friction slowing it down. Current thermodynamic models make assumptions about these variables, rather than include actual quantities.