Map Projection and Contour Plot

When I plot a map created from MATLAB's Map Projection and overlay it over a contour plot, I get an error. Now it will work if I make my lat, long, and temp into an array, but my data from a input file is in column format like:

   lat = 54

         45

         52;

Please help me in finding a way to plot it as column vectors or change the column vectors into an array without destroying the data.

Here is the code:

 clc;

 figure;

 axesm('MapProjection', 'ortho', 'origin', [25,123])

 framem;

 load coast;

 plotm(lat, long, 'k')

 gridm

 clear lat long;

 lat = [50 45 52 45 46 34 32 56 78];
 long = [123 132 123 120 122 119 129 135 132];
 temp = [72 73 74 60 61 62 65 78 77];

 contourm(lat, long, temp)

Thanks,

Amanda