Me too, although, just for the sake of Devil's Advocacy, I will mention the one time I can think of that could be arguably slotted under "caught unaware by a storm" in modern(ish) day: It was 1996, I think, and we were sitting on a bridge jetty between Tampa and St. Pete and - this ranks as one of the coolest things I have EVER seen - we watched a thunder cell build up in the span of about 10 minutes. It was like watching a video of a storm develop at 16x speed. We were so fascinated that we didn't have the sense to race for cover and, of course, anything that developed that fast would break just as fast and we got soaked.
My mentioning this is really rather pedantic though, because in 40 some years of living in Florida I've never seen anything like it before or since - so maybe in the 30's or 60's that lake scene is believable, but you're right, nowadays it would be fantastically unlikely.
No, I think that's a fair point. Although, as I said, anyone with common sense is going to check the forecast and be aware of the potential for storms before going out on a boat, and will keep an eye on things while they're out there, but storms can develop really fast, too. I remember a couple of summers ago, we were in a cove on the other side of the lake when storm clouds started building earlier than predicted, and the water was already getting rough by the time we were able to pull anchor and get back across the lake to the marina. And in that same storm, a guy did drown who was out on a sailboard in a different, much smaller lake here.
The difference being, of course, that compared to 1960 and certainly 1930, we now have the ability to get fairly accurate forecasts and have a weather warning alert system that lets us plan better and react faster, not to mention now having standard safety devices that would make getting caught in a storm somewhat less perilous. But these ND books all use stormy weather to create peril and drive the plot - I think there's been a storm in all three books so far, and we're going to have another stormy scene in this one coming up soon. When I am considering dated plot points, a modern retelling of these stories would have to work around the advances in technology.
My mentioning this is really rather pedantic though, because in 40 some years of living in Florida I've never seen anything like it before or since - so maybe in the 30's or 60's that lake scene is believable, but you're right, nowadays it would be fantastically unlikely.
The difference being, of course, that compared to 1960 and certainly 1930, we now have the ability to get fairly accurate forecasts and have a weather warning alert system that lets us plan better and react faster, not to mention now having standard safety devices that would make getting caught in a storm somewhat less perilous. But these ND books all use stormy weather to create peril and drive the plot - I think there's been a storm in all three books so far, and we're going to have another stormy scene in this one coming up soon. When I am considering dated plot points, a modern retelling of these stories would have to work around the advances in technology.