Coastal cities thought to have little to fear from powerful storms may in fact be at risk of disasters of the like we’ve never before witnessed, a new study warns.

Writing in the journal Nature Climate Change, researchers at Princeton and MIT highlight the threat posed to three cities — Tampa, Florida, Caines, Australia and Dubai, United Arab Emirates — by extreme tropical storms, which have an increased chance of occurring thanks to climate change.

Tampa, Cairns and Dubai all face rare – but potentially catastrophic – disasters