Matplotlib 3.0 Cookbook

How to do it...

Here are the steps required to plot our map:

1. Define the figure:

fig = plt.figure(figsize=(16,8))

2. Define the axes with a PlateCarree projection:

ax1 = fig.add_subplot(131, projection=ccrs.PlateCarree())

3. Define the extent of longitude and latitude ranges for the USA as follows:

ax1.set_extent([-130, -66.5, 25, 47], ccrs.Geodetic())

4. Plot the map of the USA by using the add_feature() function. Cartopy provides this for the USA for convenience, so we don't have to read an external shapefile:

ax1.add_feature(cfeature.STATES, facecolor='wheat')

5. Define the gridlines() function as follows:

gl1 = ax1.gridlines(crs=ccrs.PlateCarree(), draw_labels=True,                    linewidth=2, color='gray', alpha=0.5,                     linestyle='--')

6. Switch off the ...