The modulation of the leaf energy budget components to maintain optimal leaf temperature are fundamental aspects of plant functioning and survival. Better understanding these aspects becomes increasingly important under a drying and warming climate when cooling through evapotranspiration (ET) is suppressed. Combining novel measurements and theoretical estimates, we obtained unusually comprehensive twig-scale leaf energy budgets under extreme field conditions in droughted (suppressed ET) and non-droughted (enhanced ET) plots of a semi-arid pine forest. Under the same high mid-summer radiative load, leaf cooling shifted from relying on nearly equal contributions of sensible ( H) and latent ( LE) energy fluxes in non-droughted trees to relying almost exclusively on H in droughted ones, with no change in leaf temperature. Relying on our detailed leaf energy budget, we could demonstrate that this is due to a 2× reduction in leaf aerodynamic resistance. This capability for LE-to-H shift in leaves of mature Aleppo pine trees under droughted field conditions without increasing leaf temperature is likely a critical factor in the resilience and relatively high productivity of this important Mediterranean tree species under drying conditions.