layout_gridspec.py

# Set canvas background color the same as axes
plt.rc('figure', facecolor='w')

# Arrange city based on latitude
cityList = ['hobart', 'melbourne', 'canberra', 'adelaide', 'sydney', 'perth', 'brisbane', 'darwin']

# set constrianed_layout as True to avoid axes overlap
fig = plt.figure(figsize=(10,12), dpi=300, constrained_layout=True)

# Use GridSpec for customising layout
gs = fig.add_gridspec(nrows=10, ncols=10)

# Set up a empty axes that occupied 2 rows and 10 cols in the grid for text
axText = fig.add_subplot(gs[0:2, :])
axText.annotate('I am ax1', (0.5, 0.5),
                xycoords='axes fraction', va='center', ha='center')
axText.get_xaxis().set_visible(False)
axText.get_yaxis().set_visible(False)

# Add a color bar on top of axText, using figure coordinates 
axInlet = fig.add_axes([0.9, 0.97, 0.08, 0.01], frameon=True)
axInlet.annotate('I am ax2', (0.5, 0.5),
                 xycoords='axes fraction', va='center', ha='center')
axInlet.get_xaxis().set_visible(False)
axInlet.get_yaxis().set_visible(False)

# Add axes for temperature bar plots that each occupy 1 row and 8 cols in the grid
for i, city in enumerate(cityList):
    ax = fig.add_subplot(gs[i+2, 0:8], ylim=(-30, 30))
    ax.annotate('I am ax{}'.format(i+3), (0.5, 0.5),
                xycoords='axes fraction', va='center', ha='center')
    ax.get_xaxis().set_visible(False)
    ax.get_yaxis().set_visible(False)

# Add axes for rainfall that each occipy 1 row and 2 cols in the grid
for i, city in enumerate(cityList):
    axRain = fig.add_subplot(gs[i+2, 8:10], ylim=(-30, 30))
    axRain.annotate('I am ax{}'.format(i+11), (0.5, 0.5),
                    xycoords='axes fraction', va='center', ha='center')
    axRain.get_xaxis().set_visible(False)
    axRain.get_yaxis().set_visible(False)

plt.show()