The study also notes an increase in typhoons and other tropical storms, reports Reuters.

This week, Taiwan, the Philippines, and then China were hit by the strongest typhoon of the year, causing schools, businesses and financial markets to close, with wind speeds reaching up to 227 km/h. On the east coast of China, hundreds of thousands of people were evacuated.

Stronger tropical storms are part of a broader phenomenon of extreme weather events driven by higher temperatures, scientists say.

Researchers led by Zhang Wenxia from the Chinese Academy of Sciences examined historical weather data and found that about 75% of the Earth's surface has experienced an increase in "precipitation variability" or greater fluctuations between wet and dry periods.

Rising temperatures have increased the atmosphere's ability to retain moisture, causing larger fluctuations in precipitation, according to the study published in the journal Science.

"(Variability) has increased in most places, including Australia, meaning more intense rainy periods and more severe droughts", said Steven Sherwood, a scientist at the Climate Change Research Centre at the University of New South Wales, who was not involved in the study.

"This situation will intensify as global warming continues, increasing the chances of droughts and/or floods", he adds.

Scientists believe that climate change is also altering the behavior of tropical storms, including typhoons, making them less frequent but more intense.

"I believe that higher water vapor in the atmosphere is the ultimate cause of all these trends towards more extreme hydrological phenomena", Sherwood told Reuters.

Typhoon Gaemi, which first hit Taiwan on July 24th, was the strongest to strike the island in the past eight years.

Although it is difficult to attribute individual weather events to climate change, models predict that global warming is making typhoons stronger, said Sachie Kanada, a researcher at Nagoya University in Japan.

"In general, higher sea surface temperatures are favorable conditions for the development of tropical cyclones", she said.

China has reported a significant decrease in the number of typhoons in the Northwest Pacific and the South China Sea since the 1990s, but they are becoming increasingly powerful.

Taiwan reported in its climate change report published in May that climate change may reduce the total number of typhoons in the region, making each one more intense.

The decrease in the number of typhoons is due to the uneven heating of the oceans, with temperatures rising faster in the western Pacific than in the east, said Feng Xiangbo, a researcher in tropical cyclones at the University of Reading.

The capacity of water vapor in the lower atmosphere is expected to increase by 7% for each 1 degree Celsius rise in temperature, with precipitation from tropical cyclones in the United States increasing by up to 40% for each single degree rise in temperature, he said.