Seeing MemoryError: std::bad_alloc errors in contour plots

[xylar]

From time to time in testing, I have seen errors like:

analysis task climatologyMapSeaIceSnowDepthNH_plotON_arctic_extended failed during run
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/gpfs/fs1/home/ac.xylar/mpas_work/MPAS-Analysis/add_OSNAP_TSclimtransects/mpas_analysis/shared/analysis_task.py", line 322, in run
    self.run_task()
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^
  File "/gpfs/fs1/home/ac.xylar/mpas_work/MPAS-Analysis/add_OSNAP_TSclimtransects/mpas_analysis/shared/plot/plot_climatology_map_subtask.py", line 487, in run_task
    self._plot_projection(remappedModelClimatology,
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
                          remappedRefClimatology,
                          ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
                          componentName, componentSubdirectory)
                          ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/gpfs/fs1/home/ac.xylar/mpas_work/MPAS-Analysis/add_OSNAP_TSclimtransects/mpas_analysis/shared/plot/plot_climatology_map_subtask.py", line 636, in _plot_projection
    plot_projection_comparison(
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^
        config,
        ^^^^^^^
    ...<17 lines>...
        vertical=vertical,
        ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
        extend=self.extend)
        ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/gpfs/fs1/home/ac.xylar/mpas_work/MPAS-Analysis/add_OSNAP_TSclimtransects/mpas_analysis/shared/plot/climatology_map.py", line 691, in plot_projection_comparison
    plot_panel(ax, modelTitle, modelArray, **dictModelRef)
    ~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/gpfs/fs1/home/ac.xylar/mpas_work/MPAS-Analysis/add_OSNAP_TSclimtransects/mpas_analysis/shared/plot/climatology_map.py", line 596, in plot_panel
    plotHandle = ax.contourf(xCenter, yCenter, array, cmap=colormap,
                             norm=norm, levels=levels, extend=extend)
  File "/gpfs/fs1/home/ac.xylar/chrysalis/miniforge3/envs/mpas_dev/lib/python3.13/site-packages/cartopy/mpl/geoaxes.py", line 306, in wrapper
    return func(self, *args, **kwargs)
  File "/gpfs/fs1/home/ac.xylar/chrysalis/miniforge3/envs/mpas_dev/lib/python3.13/site-packages/cartopy/mpl/geoaxes.py", line 350, in wrapper
    return func(self, *args, **kwargs)
  File "/gpfs/fs1/home/ac.xylar/chrysalis/miniforge3/envs/mpas_dev/lib/python3.13/site-packages/cartopy/mpl/geoaxes.py", line 1646, in contourf
    result = super().contourf(*args, **kwargs)
  File "/gpfs/fs1/home/ac.xylar/chrysalis/miniforge3/envs/mpas_dev/lib/python3.13/site-packages/matplotlib/__init__.py", line 1521, in inner
    return func(
        ax,
        *map(cbook.sanitize_sequence, args),
        **{k: cbook.sanitize_sequence(v) for k, v in kwargs.items()})
  File "/gpfs/fs1/home/ac.xylar/chrysalis/miniforge3/envs/mpas_dev/lib/python3.13/site-packages/matplotlib/axes/_axes.py", line 6760, in contourf
    contours = mcontour.QuadContourSet(self, *args, **kwargs)
  File "/gpfs/fs1/home/ac.xylar/chrysalis/miniforge3/envs/mpas_dev/lib/python3.13/site-packages/matplotlib/contour.py", line 765, in __init__
    self._paths = self._make_paths_from_contour_generator()
                  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^
  File "/gpfs/fs1/home/ac.xylar/chrysalis/miniforge3/envs/mpas_dev/lib/python3.13/site-packages/matplotlib/contour.py", line 938, in _make_paths_from_contour_generator
    for vs, cs in vertices_and_codes]
                  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
MemoryError: std::bad_alloc

This is with matplotlib 3.10.0 and cartopy 0.24.0.