o zonal_average returns UxDataArray to preserve hvplot-based plotting in tests

Author: rajeeja

uxarray/core/dataarray.py

@@ -643,8 +643,20 @@ def zonal_mean(self, lat=(-90, 90, 10), conservative: bool = False, **kwargs):
             )
 
     def zonal_average(self, lat=(-90, 90, 10), conservative: bool = False, **kwargs):
-        """Alias of zonal_mean; prefer `zonal_mean` for primary API."""
-        return self.zonal_mean(lat=lat, conservative=conservative, **kwargs)
+        """Zonal average convenience returning an object with the plotting accessor.
+
+        Returns a UxDataArray for compatibility with plotting tests while delegating
+        computation to zonal_mean.
+        """
+        da = self.zonal_mean(lat=lat, conservative=conservative, **kwargs)
+        return UxDataArray(
+            da.data,
+            uxgrid=self.uxgrid,
+            dims=list(da.dims),
+            coords=da.coords,
+            name=da.name,
+            attrs=da.attrs,
+        )
 
     def weighted_mean(self, weights=None):
         """Computes a weighted mean.