Growing urban population and the distinct strategies to accommodate them lead to diverse urban development patterns worldwide. While local evidence suggests the presence of urban signatures in rainfall anomalies, there is limited understanding of how rainfall responds to divergent urban development patterns worldwide. Here we unveil a divergence in the exposure to extreme rainfall for 1790 inland cities globally, attributable to their respective urban development patterns. Cities that experience compact development tend to witness larger increases in extreme rainfall frequency over downtown than their rural surroundings, while the anomalies in extreme rainfall frequency diminish for cities with dispersed development. Convection-permitting simulations further suggest compact urban footprints lead to more pronounced urban-rural thermal contrasts and aerodynamic disturbances. This is directly responsible for the divergent rainfall responses to urban development patterns. Our analyses offer significant insights pertaining to the priorities and potential of city-level efforts to mitigate the emerging climate-related hazards, particularly for countries experiencing rapid urbanization.

不断增长的城市人口以及容纳他们的独特战略导致了全球城市发展模式的多样化。虽然当地证据表明降雨异常中存在城市特征，但人们对降雨如何响应全球不同城市发展模式的了解有限。在此，我们揭示了全球 1790 个内陆城市遭受极端降雨影响的差异，这归因于各自的城市发展模式。发展紧凑的城市，市中心的极端降雨频率往往比农村地区的极端降雨频率增加幅度更大，而发展分散的城市，极端降雨频率的异常则减少。允许对流的模拟进一步表明，紧凑的城市足迹会导致更明显的城乡热力对比和空气动力扰动。这直接导致降雨对城市发展模式的不同反应。我们的分析提供了有关城市层面减轻新出现的气候相关灾害的优先事项和潜力的重要见解，特别是对于正在经历快速城市化的国家。