{
  "abstract": "Urban heat is a growing challenge, compounded by climate change and urban development. Yet, we lack a global understanding of heat extremes and where they coincide with population growth. Here, we explore satellite-based land surface temperature and population exposure across 1400 cities worldwide. Over two decades, urban surface temperature rose by 0.03-0.2 °C/year during daytime and 0.01-0.15 °C/year at night. The fastest increases were observed in cold-climate cities and in winter, particularly in Eastern Europe and Western Asia. Extreme temperatures have also become more frequent, particularly hot nights, which now occur 47% more often in arid cities. Compounded by population growth, this translates to a 51% increase in global exposure to extreme daytime heat. Climate warming amplified the exposure increase by 82% relative to population growth alone. Relative importance of population and climate change varies by climate zone, with climate dominating daytime exposure in continental regions (71%), and population growth in arid cities (69%).",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia",
    "Climate Change Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia",
    "Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for the 21st Century Weather, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia",
    "School of Built Environment, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia",
    "Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for the 21st Century Weather, University of Tasmania, Hobart, TAS, Australia",
    "Department of Geography, Ruhr-University Bochum, Bochum, Germany"
  ],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 6,
  "authors": [
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        1
      ],
      "name": "Marzie Naserikia",
      "orcid": "0009-0009-8358-3603"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        2,
        3
      ],
      "name": "Negin Nazarian",
      "orcid": "0000-0001-9839-7234"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        4
      ],
      "name": "Melissa Hart",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-3512-8843"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        5
      ],
      "name": "Panagiotis Sismanidis",
      "orcid": "0000-0003-2185-1034"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        5
      ],
      "name": "Benjamin Bechtel",
      "orcid": "0000-0001-8802-7934"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        1
      ],
      "name": "Katrin J. Meißner",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-0716-7415"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/4tv6r6458p7m5.bib",
  "cited_by": 5,
  "doi": "10.1038/s43247-026-03665-y",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "4tv6r6458p7m5",
  "issns": [
    "2662-4435"
  ],
  "landing_url": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-026-03665-y",
  "language": "en",
  "licence": "CC-BY",
  "licence_label": "CC BY",
  "licence_source": "journal",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "openalex",
      "2305|Urban Heat Island Mitigation"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7162340052",
  "pdf_url": "https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-026-03665-y_reference.pdf",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-05-25",
  "publisher": "Nature Portfolio",
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/4tv6r6458p7m5.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-11-04T13:21:18Z",
      "native_id": "W7162340052",
      "source": "openalex",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-026-03665-y"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "earth",
      "origin": "openalex:2305|Urban Heat Island Mitigation",
      "subfield": "environmental-science"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Two decades of urban heat intensification and exposure across 1400 cities",
  "title_text": "Two decades of urban heat intensification and exposure across 1400 cities",
  "type": "peer-reviewed",
  "updated_at": "2026-11-09T13:21:21Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/4tv6r6458p7m5",
  "venue": "Communications Earth & Environment",
  "versions": []
}