Narrative:

Upon initial review of our weather package and dispatch release; it appeared we were not legal to land at destination based on the weather forecast. The wind forecast placed us out of limits for a runway that was planned and forecast to be wet-fair. When I called dispatch to inquire; I experienced a confrontational dispatcher and seemingly not sharing any care about my concern for legality. Only upon my request did he update the forecast. His new forecast changed the wind speed by a one knot crosswind component and that was enough to make us legal. I am concerned that I can be presented paperwork that essentially tells me we were not legal to go (but only after a complete review of all the planning material) and the dispatcher not having any awareness of that. Then when I sought support; I instead received a confrontational attitude that even later morphed into questioning my judgment if the need to divert was likely (as the weather clearly indicated a higher likelihood than normal). The dispatcher also did not express any concern nor acknowledge my concern for being so close to a limit with real safety implications (landing on an icy runway in blowing snow conditions) outside of the legal question.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A B737 Captain questions the legality of forecasted arrival weather. He is met with confrontation and attitude upon contacting the Dispatcher to receive an updated forecast and discuss the paperwork.

Narrative: Upon initial review of our weather package and Dispatch Release; it appeared we were not legal to land at destination based on the weather forecast. The wind forecast placed us out of limits for a runway that was planned and forecast to be wet-fair. When I called Dispatch to inquire; I experienced a confrontational Dispatcher and seemingly not sharing any care about my concern for legality. Only upon my request did he update the forecast. His new forecast changed the wind speed by a one knot crosswind component and that was enough to make us legal. I am concerned that I can be presented paperwork that essentially tells me we were not legal to go (but only after a complete review of all the planning material) and the Dispatcher not having any awareness of that. Then when I sought support; I instead received a confrontational attitude that even later morphed into questioning my judgment if the need to divert was likely (as the weather clearly indicated a higher likelihood than normal). The Dispatcher also did not express any concern nor acknowledge my concern for being so close to a limit with real safety implications (landing on an icy runway in blowing snow conditions) outside of the legal question.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.