add_tropycal¶

tropycal.utils.add_tropycal(ax)[source]¶

Adds Tropycal plotting capability to a matplotlib.pyplot axes instance with a Cartopy projection.

This axes instance must have already had a Cartopy projection added (e.g., projection=ccrs.PlateCarree()).

Parameters: ax (cartopy.mpl.geoaxes.GeoAxes) – Instance of a matplotlib axes with a Cartopy projection added.
Returns: ax – The same axes instance is returned, with tropycal plotting functions from tropycal.utils.cartopy_utils added to it as methods.

Notes

This function appends Tropycal plotting capability to an existing axes with a Cartopy projection. Below is an example of how to use this functionality:

#Import necessary packages
from tropycal import tracks, utils
import cartopy.crs as ccrs
import cartopy.feature as cfeature
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

#Retrieve North Atlantic HURDATv2 dataset and store in basin variable
basin = tracks.TrackDataset('north_atlantic')

#Create a PlateCarree Cartopy projection
proj = ccrs.PlateCarree()

#Create an instance of figure and axes
fig = plt.figure(figsize=(9,6),dpi=150)
ax = plt.axes(projection=proj)

#Plot coastlines and boundaries
states = ax.add_feature(cfeature.STATES.with_scale('50m'),linewidths=0.5,linestyle='solid',edgecolor='k')
countries = ax.add_feature(cfeature.BORDERS.with_scale('50m'),linewidths=1.0,linestyle='solid',edgecolor='k')
coastlines = ax.add_feature(cfeature.COASTLINE.with_scale('50m'),linewidths=1.0,linestyle='solid',edgecolor='k')

#Add Tropycal functionality to axes
ax = utils.add_tropycal(ax)

#Use the "plot_storm()" method to plot Hurricane Michael's track
storm = basin.get_storm(('michael',2018))
ax.plot_storm(storm,'-',color='k')

#Zoom in over the Gulf Coast
ax.set_extent([-100,-70,18,37])

#Show plot and close
plt.show()
plt.close()