Benjamin Franklin gets a lot of credit for his contributions to weather science - all very much deserved. But few people know that a century before Franklin, in 1644 and 1645, a clergyman named John Campanius Holm made what were probably the first continuous weather observations in North America. And he did his weather observing at the colony of New Sweden near present-day Wilmington.

Campanius had no weather instruments - he just wrote down descriptions of temperature, wind, humidity, and weather. He returned to Sweden in 1648, where almost 50 years later, in 1702, his grandson published his observations. About a hundred years after that they were translated into English and published here by the American Philosophical Society, which is still headquartered in Philadelphia.

To some, Campanius is known as America's first weatherman. In fact, in recognition of his contributions, the National Weather Service gives The John Campanius Holm Award each year to honor outstanding and dedicated cooperative weather observers.