Basemap and counties

I am trying to use matplotlib and basemap to show a map of the State of Indiana and highlight a few
different counties. As a newbie I started with the code below, but I am having trouble with how to identify
and fill specific counties. Anyone have any suggestions?

from mpl_toolkits.basemap import Basemap
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np

# make sure the value of resolution is a lowercase L,
# for 'low', not a numeral 1
map = Basemap(projection='merc', lat_0=39.1622, lon_0=-86.5292,
   resolution = 'h', area_thresh = 0.1,
   llcrnrlon=-88.53, llcrnrlat=37.16,
   urcrnrlon=-84.53, urcrnrlat=41.16)

map.drawcoastlines()
map.drawcountries()
map.drawstates(linewidth=0.5, linestyle="solid", color="r", antialiased=1, ax=None, zorder=None)
map.drawcounties(linewidth=0.1,linestyle="solid", color="k", antialiased=1,
                ax=None, zorder=None, drawbounds=False)
#map.fillcontinents(color='coral')
map.drawmapboundary()

map.drawmeridians(np.arange(0, 360, 30))
map.drawparallels(np.arange(-90, 90, 30))

plt.show()

You can set the "facecolor" of the counties when you call drawcounties().
The problem is getting only certain counties colored. That means you pass a
list of colors to "facecolor". The problem there is that you don't know the
order in which the counties are processed. I've done this before, but I
have to dig up that code... Maybe someone else can beat me to that?

Ben Root
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On Wed, Aug 19, 2015 at 11:07 AM, Tommy Grav <tgrav at me.com> wrote:

from mpl_toolkits.basemap import Basemap
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np

# make sure the value of resolution is a lowercase L,
# for 'low', not a numeral 1
map = Basemap(projection='merc', lat_0=39.1622, lon_0=-86.5292,
   resolution = 'h', area_thresh = 0.1,
   llcrnrlon=-88.53, llcrnrlat=37.16,
   urcrnrlon=-84.53, urcrnrlat=41.16)

map.drawcoastlines()
map.drawcountries()
map.drawstates(linewidth=0.5, linestyle="solid", color="r", antialiased=1,
ax=None, zorder=None)
map.drawcounties(linewidth=0.1,linestyle="solid", color="k", antialiased=1,
                ax=None, zorder=None, drawbounds=False)
#map.fillcontinents(color='coral')
map.drawmapboundary()

map.drawmeridians(np.arange(0, 360, 30))
map.drawparallels(np.arange(-90, 90, 30))

plt.show()