Happy Hot Chocolate Day!

It’s been a chilly January in much of the United States. Pretty standard for Minnesota, where we often reach -30-degrees C in December, January, and even February, but still…

I was pumped to see this National Day on the calendar. It got me thinking… Is hot chocolate even a thing across the entire US?

Let’s find out…

View Map

Tools Used

• Dataset Doctor GPT
• Web Mapper GPT

Dataset Doctor GPT Prompt Used

Can you create a spatial dataset of the average daily temperature by US county OR, if not county data is not available, by US state on January 31 or, if that date is too specific, in January broadly.(Whatever averages you find, e.g., past 10 years, past 20 years, past 50 years, etc., whatever is easiest to fetch is fine and it doesn’t have to be current… any dataset within the past 20 years containing this info is fine. I’m going to use this information to create a silly map about how likely National Hot Chocolate Day is to be celebrated across the US on January 31. Fields needed in dataset (if county data isn’t possible to collect, skip county-based fields listed below, no worries): – County Name – State Name – County Avg Temperature – State Avg Temperature – State FIPS – County FIPS – Data source: Name I would love this in exported as a shapefile or geojson format with geometry from Natural Earth Data if possible. Otherwise, a CSV file with the data is fine as well. I can join it to a spatial dataset later. Thank you!

Web Mapper GPT Prompt Used

Hi. I would like to create a friendly, atmospheric, and chocolately looking map of the United States in an Albers equal area projection (for the contiguous US, I don’t care what Alaska and Hawaii projections are used, but those two states should be insets) of hot chocolate consumption. I have a GeoJSON dataset of all the states with geometries, and their average January temperatures. Please create a five-class breakdown on the temperature field, and use a brown color value to display, in choroplethic fashion, which states are most likely to celebrate National Hot Chocolate Day on January 31 based on average temperature. Have a small legend that labels each classification. The legend title should be: “Likely to celebrate?” Category titles from highest temperature average to lowest temperature average: – Not at all – Could be persuaded – Why not? – You betcha! – Two or three cups minimum!!! When a user clicks on a state, show the state name and the average temperature value for that state in Fahrenheit. Aesthetically, the map should have chocolately brown themes, and the oceans should have some graphic design marshmallow like icons looking like they are floating (e.g., partially submerged). Put about 5-8 of them in the Pacific Ocean, 4-7 in the Atlantic, and about three in the Gulf of Mexico. They don’t resize or change. The entire US should appear in the window. There should be no “below the fold” everything should fit in the window. The title of the map (upper-left) should be across the top and read: Happy Hot Chocolate Day, 2025! Subtitle: Which states are likely to celebrate based on average January temperatures? Upper-right: hamburger menu. when opened: Sources: NOAA, Dataset Doctor, Web Mapper GPT, and any other attribution that may be required from the software stack used. Clicking anywhere outside of this window automatically closes it. Important: make sure this window/modal/panel is closed when the map opens. Thanks! On mobile devices, ask the user to tilt the phone to landscape before viewing the map. Then, when tilted, ensure the map fills the window above the fold (and also without the title interfering with interacting with the map. Thanks! Use Google Fonts to create a warm, inviting, hot chocolately over the top camp fire vibe. 🙂

Happy Martyr’s Day! It’s a national day in India celebrating Mahatma Gandhi.

To honor his legacy, I created a map of his historic march with information along the way at each stop. Again, doing one of these a day in my spare time doesn’t leave much time for innovation or design, but I can imagine coming back to this and adding non-proprietary imagery and details along the way.

Also, this is my first ever map in Hindi. There is a button in the upper right. You can switch between English and Hindi there. I cannot vouch for the Hindi translations, but I assure you, they are better and more accurate than what I would have been able to do before prompt cartography. I hope they serve this great human being justice.

Map production time constraints and language barriers aside, Gandhi inspires me (particularly in today’s geopolitical climate here in Minnesota).

I am proud to give Martyr’s Day a map of its own in our #365DaysOfMaps challenge.

View Map.

Tools

• Dataset Doctor GPT: Full conversation
• Web Mapper GPT

Prompt Used in Web Mapper GPT

I would like to make a map of Ghandi’s travels for India’s National Martyr Day. I have a CSV dataset (attached). Please keep this map pinned to India and Bangladesh area — i.e., cannot pan out of these bounds or zoom out past South Asia. Please use a topographic base map and if possible use a mask that that has India’s flag colors lightly embued in it to give it an India vibe. The mask must be below the mapped data, but abover the base map. Please use point symbols that are in India’s Orange color (on the nation’s flag, with India’s Green slight drop shadows. When a user clicks on a point, a pop-up info window should appear showing all th English information such in the following visual hierarchy order: – Stop Name (Place Name) and Province – Description – Context (when available) – Date (near top but subdued) – Sources (as a bulleted list) Please use an aesthetic and palette that ties to India’s national colors. Keep is subdued. The title should be Display Text in the format of 1950s Newspaper Headlines. Come up with three good titles dealing with Martyr Day and Ghandi. perhap something akin to “The Martyr’s March”. Pick your favorite and include it in the upper-left hovering over the map in large, print-map like style. No background box. (Make sure you use some effects to make it legible over the base map, e.g. drop shadow, etc.). Make the title stand out. In the upper-right, include a hamburger icon that when clicked shows a menu that includes a link to Sources. When that is clicked show a modal splash window with sources and attributions. It should close when someone clicks anywhere outside of it and it must not be open when the map opens. Also include a button that says “Hindi” in Hindi, please. When the user clicks this button, the map pop-ups and title and hamburger menu items all switch to Hindi. (There are Hindi fields in the dataset replicating English fields. Switch them in the popups, please.) The menu item the user clicked that said Hindi (in Hindi) now says English (in English). If the user clicks this, everything switches back to English, including the pop-up windows on the map.

Happy National Jigsaw Puzzle Day!

As the weather hit -30-degrees C here in the Free State of Minnesota this past week, I was thrilled to see this day arriving soon. Puzzles are how we socialize without talking in the winter in these parts during the winter.

This was the fastest “map” I’ve created yet this year. Took about five minutes to get it working. I used regular ol’ ChatGPT to create the puzzle maps using screen grabs from Open Street Maps (and Contributors) website.

Maybe you’ll recognize some of the places. Maybe you won’t. Have fun!

View Map

Credits

• OSM.org (Open Street Map and Contributors, 2026)
• ChatGPT

ChatGPT Prompt

Link to full conversation

Hi, I would like to make a puzzle out of this Ope Street Map image I have for International Jigsaw Day. Could you create a simple website for me that does the following: – When a user visits the site, they will see this image broken up into a variety of scattered jigsaw pieces on a faux wood background. The pieces will be scattered and not necessarily oriented correctly — though all face-side up. On the table will be an outline of the size and location of the rectangle map area they must fill in with the pieces. They will then select pieces and drag them to the correct spot. They may rotate pieces by right-clicking or left-clicking with the Alt key pressed down and pulling up or down. All pieces begin in random 45-degree orientations. Rotations move in 45-degree increments when users rotate. It must be possible to align all pieces correctly to eventually fit. The pieces of the map should be roughly equal height and width. Use standard jigsaw cuts. Try to make them unique enough to allow a user to discern when pieces go together by looking at the cuts. But some duplicate cuts are permitted. Please make the puzzle 25 – 40 pieces. Whatever works best for the image and layout. On mobile devices, ask the user to rotate their phone before beginning. Ensure that the puzzle feature is above the fold when the mobile device rotates and gets resituated in the browser window. There should be a simple title under the pieces but when the puzzle is finished above the puzzle: Happy Jigsaw Puzzle Day! Elsewhere on the site, perhaps in the lower-right or upper-right, you decide, there should be a hamburger menu. When clicked, a small pop-up shows bulleted: (https://openstreetmap.org) and [ChatGPT](https://www.chatgpt.com) – For [#365DaysOfMaps](https://mapdesign.icaci.org) – Source: Open Street Maps, OSM, and Contributors, 2026. – Specific map scene available [here](https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=14/50.08042/8.24172)

Happy National Hug Day.

My family loves hugs. But I know a lot of people that don’t really enjoy them. Some people prefer light kisses on the cheeks, handshakes, fist bumps, or back pats. One’s preferences are definitely cultural and perhaps even genetic…

So I thought it would be a good idea to create map for National Hug Day that highlights where you can celebrate hug day more openly versus where you may want to be more cautious.

This is based on ample evidence collected in many scientific studies but it is not legal advice. Please advise with legal counsel before trusting this map.

Enjoy Hug Day!

View map here.

Original Prompt

I need to come up with an idea for National Hugging Day. I was thinking of something cynical, like showing states where hugging without permission is a misdemeanor offense or assault.

Is there any generic information on where hugging, by state law, is more likely to get one cited or arrested than other places? If not, please come up with five good (and very simple, qualitative) map ideas to create for National Hugging Day, please. Thank you!

Happy Penguin Day, everyone!

This map was actually the easiest to make this week, which surprised me, given it’s a stereographic projection in Leaflet, and Leaflet loves Web Mercator.

Thank you for the MAPPPD for sharing all of their incredible data from over the years.

Enjoy exploring the different penguins of Antarctica! Waddle, waddle, waddle…

View the penguins here… [bad link now updated. apologies.]

Original Prompt

I would like to make a map of penguins in antarctica using a south pole projection. It doesn’t have to be particularly dynamic — it can be a static orthographic or stereographic view of the south pole. I have the datasets — uploaded now. Please tell me: which stack and mapping agent will be best for showing the south pole? It doesn’t have to be a “globe” renderer if there is one that can show Antarctica from a flat polar projection on the screen. Please come up with three solutions, with pros and cons for each. Thanks!

Happy Quark Day!

Quarks are the building blocks of the universe. At least, from the human, physicalist perspective. From a quantum perspective, maybe not?

I don’t know. I’m just a geographer and the Information Physics Institute — which holds some unconventional beliefs about the universe being comprised of information and perhaps nothing more than a simulation.

So for Quark Day, I thought I’d make a map that shows how the Holographic Theory works. It’s got Earth in it for a second. And from there, everything disintegrates into two-dimensional information.

Just a heads up: works far better on mobile.

View Holograms Are Kinda Quary…

Created using ChatGPT 5.2

Original Prompt

I would like to make a map for world quark day that plays on the holographic principle that the universe is really the out edge of a 2D surface that is projected like a hologram to appear 3D to us, and our consciousness.

Please come up with 3-5 interactive visualization techniques or ideas. They don’t have to be spatial data based, but rather, I’d like to use the web, free animation and css APIs, and perhaps a globe of some sort to visualize, and annotate, how the holographic universe theory works (an explantory diagram).

I’m thinking it will be a walk through (forward and backward outlining the analogy to a hologram (i.e., explaining how a hologram globe works for real, and then extending and expanding beyond to explain how the holographic universe would work.

When you provide your ideas: please explain the visualization concept, the level of complexity from a technology standpoint to get it to work and what stack is required, how it will work changing from mobile to desktop, and why and why you don’t think it will be good.

When you’re done, please tell me which one you would pursue assuming my goal is to put the least amount of work into it and get a fairly polished, cool looking explanation for International Quark Day. 🙂

Thank you!