Urban forests play a key role in mitigating climate change impacts and enhancing urban ecosystem services. However, urban trees are increasingly threatened by extreme drought events, especially under unfavorable growing conditions. We assessed drought resistance in 18,172 trees from 33 botanical families located in parks and streets of semi-arid Almeria, southeastern Spain. Using Sentinel-2 satellite imagery, we quantified resistance during extreme drought events between 2017 and 2023. Park trees showed significantly higher drought resistance than street trees, likely due to lower soil compaction, greater rooting space, and reduced heat stress. Street trees faced compounded stress from compacted soils, restricted roots, and elevated temperatures from impervious surfaces. Drought resistance varied notably across taxa. Gymnosperms generally outperformed angiosperms, reflecting physiological traits conferring greater drought resistance. Native species were more resistant overall, highlighting the benefits of local adaptation, though exotic species surpassed natives in street environments. Species from desert and dry shrubland origins had the highest resistance, followed by temperate, and lastly humid tropical origins, a pattern consistent in both parks and streets. These findings underscore the importance of aligning species selection with their biome of origin, prioritizing dry-origin taxa for streets and reserving less tolerant species for parks. Management strategies should include soil decompaction, expanded rooting space through permeable pavements, improved water infiltration, supplementary irrigation, and reduction of water evaporation. Expanding and preserving park areas, and planting drought-resistant native or non-invasive exotic species, will be essential to sustain urban forest health and ecosystem services as drought events intensify under climate change.