Let there be grids
Outside of ZIP codes, there are other methods we like to utilize to map our data. One of these is the use of a grid of some arbitrary size over a large area. Many types of data can be mapped to a grid. Temperature, precipitation, elevation each lends themselves to grids due to their continuous nature over a surface. Sometimes other types of data are projected onto grids that are not necessarily continuous, population, geologic formations and income for instance. Grids are also useful for simply indicating locations of geographic features, and have most often been exploited historically for that purpose.