Narrative:

On arrival to mht; I started to listen to the (non-digital) ATIS near new york city. Being that [someone with 119.55 approach to runway 22?] approach is also on (119.55); I had to listen multiple times; as portions of mht ATIS were repetitively blocked. Writing the entire ATIS down took most of the arrival into mht. As a side note; this was the first time landing in wintery conditions this year; and the ATIS was reporting what I believe to say '3/4 SM -snbr with 100% of the runway being covered by compacted snow with 1/8 inch wet snow covering the compacted snow.' then something to the effect of 'plowed and swept center 100 feet; sanded center 50 feet; with sand over 1' of compact snow.' needless to say; reported conditions were much worse than anticipated; reported (when I checked the mht preflight weather); or I had seen in early winter during the past 15 years of flying. Because I did not know which field condition would be worse; compact snow vs. Wet snow; I ran numbers for both. (Wet snow is worse). Right as we were approaching nuukm; the first officer (first officer) noticed we were high (around 10;000); and we notified ATC (mht approach); who said the crossing restriction wasn't important. She then told us to descend to 3000; expect vectors to ILS 35; and to pick up the latest ATIS; as it 'has updated field condition reports that you may want to listen to.' so; back to listening to ATIS. At some point; approach changed our clearance to the showz transition (no longer vectored) to ILS 35; which I attempted to build in the FMS. As we were very close to showz; the entire arrival reloaded in the FMS; and we did not make the turn to ihobb. I noticed we didn't make the turn; and as I was about to call approach; she beat me to it; vectored us to final; I listened to the now 'poor' braking action (with simultaneous contradictory field conditions of 3/3/3); relieved those concerns by receiving braking action of 'good' from [an aircraft that just landed]; and we continued to a safe approach and landing. On landing; visibility was just over 1 SM; and conditions were miraculously better than the arctic conditions reported by ATIS.contributing factors: [early morning] wakeup; low visibility conditions; and not a lot of heads up before arriving into the mht area on which approach to load and brief; due to the frequency saturation and multiple blocking of 119.55 ATIS. Last minute change from expect vectors to 'cleared for the approach' just about over the IAF/showz.we just could not get ahead of the aircraft; and were both a bit reactionary to the situation; rather than being proactive. Digital ATIS would help immensely; as I would have been able to compute; plan; brief; plan; execute the arrival and approach long before the last minute version of what happened today.if approach is going to clear us for the showz transition to ILS 35; don't say anything about vectors to ILS 35.use VNAV for crossing restrictions.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Air carrier flight crew reported that while flying the MHT ROZZE RNAV STAR into deteriorating icing and runway conditions; encountered a very high workload as ATC changed arrival transitions and monitoring runway and icing conditions.

Narrative: On arrival to MHT; I started to listen to the (non-digital) ATIS near New York City. Being that [someone with 119.55 approach to runway 22?] approach is also on (119.55); I had to listen multiple times; as portions of MHT ATIS were repetitively blocked. Writing the entire ATIS down took most of the arrival into MHT. As a side note; this was the first time landing in wintery conditions this year; and the ATIS was reporting what I believe to say '3/4 SM -SNBR with 100% of the runway being covered by compacted snow with 1/8 inch wet snow covering the compacted snow.' Then something to the effect of 'plowed and swept center 100 feet; sanded center 50 feet; with sand over 1' of compact snow.' Needless to say; reported conditions were MUCH worse than anticipated; reported (when I checked the MHT preflight weather); or I had seen in early winter during the past 15 years of flying. Because I did not know which field condition would be worse; compact snow vs. wet snow; I ran numbers for both. (Wet snow is worse). Right as we were approaching NUUKM; the First Officer (FO) noticed we were high (around 10;000); and we notified ATC (MHT Approach); who said the crossing restriction wasn't important. She then told us to descend to 3000; expect VECTORS to ILS 35; and to pick up the latest ATIS; as it 'has updated field condition reports that you may want to listen to.' So; back to listening to ATIS. At some point; Approach changed our clearance to the SHOWZ TRANSITION (no longer vectored) to ILS 35; which I attempted to build in the FMS. As we were very close to SHOWZ; the entire arrival reloaded in the FMS; and we did not make the turn to IHOBB. I noticed we didn't make the turn; and as I was about to call Approach; she beat me to it; vectored us to final; I listened to the now 'Poor' braking action (with simultaneous contradictory field conditions of 3/3/3); relieved those concerns by receiving braking action of 'good' from [an aircraft that just landed]; and we continued to a safe approach and landing. On landing; visibility was just over 1 SM; and conditions were miraculously better than the arctic conditions reported by ATIS.Contributing factors: [Early morning] wakeup; low visibility conditions; and not a lot of heads up before arriving into the MHT area on which approach to load and brief; due to the frequency saturation and multiple blocking of 119.55 ATIS. Last minute change from expect vectors to 'cleared for the approach' just about over the IAF/SHOWZ.We just could not get ahead of the aircraft; and were both a bit reactionary to the situation; rather than being proactive. Digital ATIS would help IMMENSELY; as I would have been able to compute; plan; brief; plan; execute the arrival and approach long before the last minute version of what happened today.If Approach is going to clear us for the SHOWZ transition to ILS 35; don't say anything about vectors to ILS 35.Use VNAV for crossing restrictions.

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.