Urban vegetation modulates compound hot-dry events across Chinese cities

As climate extremes intensify globally, understanding the role of urban greening in shaping compound hot-dry events (CHDEs) is critical for designing climate-resilient cities. Here, we have integrated the maximum daily temperature with the monthly standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index (SPEI) to examine how urban vegetation modulates CHDE frequency and intensity across China from 2000 to 2024. Results show that the mean annual urban leaf area index (LAI) is 1.77, while CHDEs occurred on average 12 times per year. In contrast, CHDE intensity remained relatively stable during the study period, with an average annual value of 0.018. CHDE frequency and intensity were generally higher in northern cities. However, the strongest negative association between LAI and CHDEs was concentrated in central China, particularly for CHDE intensity. Precipitation predominantly controlled CHDEs frequency, whereas potential evapotranspiration were the primary drivers of intensity. Within the major urban agglomerations, the dominant drivers of CHDE frequency varied substantially, whereas CHDE intensity was more consistently dominated by temperature. These findings highlight the crucial role of urban greening in mitigating compound hot-dry risks and provide useful insights for developing climate-adaptive urban strategies under future warming.