Map Plotting Options

Various plotting functions in Tropycal make use of properties to allow the user to customize the plots. These properties are listed below.

Map prop

The following table lists options that can be passed to the “map_prop” argument as a dictionary. A sample usage block is included below:

storm.plot(map_prop={'figsize':(14,9),'linewidth':1.0})

Property	Description
figsize	Figure size in inches, horizontal by vertical. Default is (14,9).
dpi	Figure resolutions in pixels per inch. Default is 200.
res	Resolution of political and geographic boundaries. Options are ‘l’, ‘m’, ‘h’. Default is ‘m’.
linewidth	Line width for political and geographic boundaries. Default is 0.5.
linecolor	Line color for political and geographic boundaries. Default is black.
land_color	Color used to fill land. Default is ‘#FBF5EA’.
ocean_color	Color used to fill oceans and lakes. Default is ‘#EDFBFF’.
plot_gridlines	Boolean for whether to plot lat/lon gridlines. Default is True.
state_alpha	Opacity for state borders from 1.0 (fully visible) to 0.0 (not visible). Default is 1.0.

Tracks Properties

The following sections lists options that can be passed to the “prop” argument as a dictionary. A sample usage block is included below:

storm.plot(prop={'dots':True,'linecolor':'k'})

Generic prop options

The following properties are available for any function that involves plotting storm tracks.

Property	Description
dots	Boolean whether to plot storm track dots along the storm track. Default is False.
fillcolor	Fill color for storm track dots. Refer to table below for special color options.
linecolor	Line color for storm track. Refer to table below for special color options.
cmap	Colormap used for fill and/or line color, if not a single color nor ‘category’. Can be a string or a dict of values and corresponding colors.
levels	List of levels corresponding to cmap, if not coloring by a single color nor ‘category’.
linewidth	Line width for storm track. Default varies by function.
ms	Size of storm track dots. Default is 7.5.
plot_names	For plotting multiple storms or seasons, determines whether to plot storm name labels.

The following special options are available for linecolor or fillcolor:

Value	Description
“category”	Default color map for SSHWS category.
“vmax”	Color by maximum sustained wind.
“mslp”	Color by minimum MSLP.
“dvmax_dt”	Fill color by change in sustained wind speed. Only available for interpolated storm objects, retrieved using storm.interp().
“speed”	Fill color by forward speed of tropical cyclone. Only available for interpolated storm objects, retrieved using storm.interp().

plot_nhc_forecast

The following properties are available only for the tropycal.tracks.Storm.plot_nhc_forecast() and tropycal.realtime.RealtimeStorm.plot_forecast_realtime() functions.

Property	Description
cone_lw	Center line width for the cone of uncertainty. Default is 2.0.
cone_alpha	Transparency for the cone of uncertainty. Default is 0.6.
cone_res	Grid resolution for the cone of uncertainty in degrees. Default is 0.05.

gridded_stats

The following properties are available only for the tropycal.tracks.TrackDataset.gridded_stats() function.

Property	Description
plot_values	Boolean for whether to plot label values for each gridpoint. Default is False.
values_size	If plot_values is set to True, determines font size for labels. If none, this is automatically determined.
smooth	Number (in units of sigma) to smooth the data using scipy’s gaussian filter. Default is 0 (no smoothing).
cmap	Colormap to use for the plot. If string ‘category’ is passed (default), uses a pre-defined color scale corresponding to the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale.
clevs	Contour levels for the plot. Default is minimum and maximum values in the grid.
left_title	Title string for the left side of the plot. Default is the string passed via the ‘request’ keyword argument.
right_title	Title string for the right side of the plot. Default is ‘All storms’.

Realtime Summary

The following properties are available only for the tropycal.realtime.Realtime.plot_summary() function.

prop_two

The following properties are available for plotting NHC Tropical Weather Outlook (TWO).

Property	Description
plot	Boolean to determine whether to plot NHC TWO. Default is True.
days	Number of days for TWO. Can be either 2 or 5. Default is 5.
fontsize	Font size for text label. Default is 12.

prop_invest

The following properties are available for plotting invests.

Property	Description
plot	Boolean to determine whether to plot active invests. Default is True.
linewidth	Line width for past track. Default is 0.8. Set to zero to not plot line.
linecolor	Line color for past track. Default is black.
linestyle	Line style for past track. Default is dotted.
fontsize	Font size for invest name label. Default is 12.
ms	Marker size for invest location. Default is 14.

prop_storm

The following properties are available for plotting storms.

Property	Description
plot	Boolean to determine whether to plot active storms. Default is True.
linewidth	Line width for past track. Default is 0.8. Set to zero to not plot line.
linecolor	Line color for past track. Default is black.
linestyle	Line style for past track. Default is dotted.
fontsize	Font size for storm name label. Default is 12.
fillcolor	Fill color for storm location marker. Default is color by SSHWS category (“category”).
label_category	Boolean for whether to plot SSHWS category on top of storm location marker. Default is True.
ms	Marker size for storm location. Default is 14.

prop_cone

The following properties are available for plotting realtime cone of uncertainty.

Property	Description
plot	Boolean to determine whether to plot cone of uncertainty & forecast track for active storms. Default is True.
linewidth	Line width for forecast track. Default is 1.5. Set to zero to not plot line.
alpha	Opacity for cone of uncertainty. Default is 0.6.
days	Number of days for cone of uncertainty, from 2 through 5. Default is 5.
fillcolor	Fill color for forecast dots. Default is color by SSHWS category (“category”).
label_category	Boolean for whether to plot SSHWS category on top of forecast dots. Default is True.
ms	Marker size for forecast dots. Default is 12.

Recon Properties

plot_points

The following properties are available only for the tropycal.recon.ReconDataset.plot_points() function.

Property	Description
cmap	Colormap to use for the plot. If string ‘category’ is passed (default), uses a pre-defined color scale corresponding to the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale.
levels	Levels for the color scale. If None (default), these are automatically generated.
sortby	Variable to sort observations by. Default is the variable specified for plotting.
ms	Size of observation dots. Default is 7.5.

plot_swath and plot_map

The following properties are available only for the tropycal.recon.ReconDataset.plot_swath() and tropycal.recon.ReconDataset.plot_map() functions.

Property	Description
cmap	Colormap to use for the plot. If string ‘category’ is passed (default), uses a pre-defined color scale corresponding to the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale.
levels	Levels for the color scale. If None (default), these are automatically generated.
left_title	Title string for the left side of the plot. Default is automatically generated based on the requested variable.
right_title	Title string for the right side of the plot. Default is ‘All storms’.
pcolor	Boolean for whether to use matplotlib.pyplot.pcolor() if set to True (default). If False, uses matplotlib.pyplot.contourf().

plot_hovmoller

The following properties are available only for the tropycal.recon.ReconDataset.plot_hovmoller() function.

Property	Description
cmap	Colormap to use for the plot. If string ‘category’ is passed (default), uses a pre-defined color scale corresponding to the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale.
levels	Levels for the color scale. If None (default), these are automatically generated.
smooth_contourf	Boolean determining whether to draw a smooth contourfill plot (True, default) or discrete intervals (False).