COLLEGE STATION, Texas -- A new study shows that as time goes on and our oceans slowly warm, hurricanes will only get stronger.

“We do know that things are going to change as the climate warms and unfortunately some places are going to be the victims of that,” said John Nielsen-Gammon. He’s the Texas State Climatologist living and working in College Station.

“I swore after Alicia that I’d never stay through another one, but hey, got short memories,” said Nielsen-Gammon.

Experts say that getting the forecast right is crucial for residents and emergency planners.

Researchers at Florida State University say global warming may be the reason recent storms have been stronger.

They looked at hurricanes in the 1980s and compared wind speeds then to storms today.

The study found that in most recent storms, wind forces are stronger once a powerful hurricane spins up on its own wind speeds.

“I don’t know that this is sufficient observational evidence to show it’s happening, but this is something we expect to develop over time,” said Nielsen-Gammon.

Nielsen-Gammon says he is not convinced this study proves anything, but says the findings are consistent with overall theories about storms.

“The theoretical projection for hurricane intensity is that they should get somewhat stronger, say five or ten miles per hour stronger over the next century,” said he said.

Whether you believe global warming is caused by human activity or is a natural process, experts say, global sea surface temperatures are rising. And even if that increases hurricane strength by a little bit, the damage those hurricanes would cause would increase exponentially.

“It’s not like a five-mile increase in storm strength leads to a five percent increase in damage, it actually has a big effect,” said Nielsen-Gammon.

He said that another five miles per hour and Hurricane Ike would have reached category three.

The damage it would have caused then would have been ten percent worse.

“To me, hurricane strengthening is sort of a red herring. Most people don’t deal well with hurricanes as they exist right now and that’s a bigger problem than whether they will get slightly stronger in the future,” said Nielsen Gammon. “If I’m sitting in Houston with a storm coming towards me trying to decide whether to evacuate, it’s not going to make a difference whether it’s going to be 105 miles per hour or 110 miles per hour.”

Researchers say they don’t think global warming is causing more hurricanes, but it is making storms stronger.Some believe that hurricanes may gradually become even more powerful in the next 50 years.