Narrative:

While enroute to den I overheard an aircraft on commercial radio tell dispatch that the weather in den was going down. I contacted dispatch and was given publication as an alternate. While holding at the hgo VOR; I was able to get the publication ATIS. It noted that 8L/26R was closed and that they were shooting the GPS 17 approach. The off line alternate book does not have this approach plate and only included plates for the 8L/26R approaches; and since the weather was 800 ovc; it was below our visual circling minimums. This turned out to be an unsuitable alternate; so I contacted dispatch and asked if there were any other suitable alternates. They told me that they had just sent another aircraft to ZZZ; which was reporting 200 ovc and 1.25 visibility. I got the landing performance; and the captain exercised his emergency authority; since we were now at bug out fuel. The flight arrived without incident in ZZZ. Dispatch sent us multiple releases that were illegal due to the fact that the alternates were not legal because of weather and equipment outages (NOTAMS).I did my job and can read and understand the far's and operations specifications. Dispatch failed to contact us enroute to advise us that the weather in den was going down. A heads up from dispatch may have allowed us to divert to get more gas and weigh our options rather than box us into a corner where we had no choices left. This put the flight in a situation where time was not on our side and decisions were more time critical while the fuel was ticking down. Our aircraft is equipped with SELCAL and there appears to have been no attempt to contact us. Also we were not informed that there were any runway closures at publication. By the time we got publication ATIS and discovered the runways were closed and that it was unsuitable for an alternate; our options were very limited; to say the least. Dispatch also attempted to send us out of ZZZ with alternates that were unsuitable due to either the weather or ground facility outages. There is also a very limited number of alternates available near the den airport. It took multiple tries to have the dispatcher produce a legal release document. The dispatchers need additional help when the weather goes down. Also; in bad weather situations someone should review their work before a release is sent to the flight crew to ensure that it meets the far and operation specifications requirements.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: EMB145 Captain and Dispatcher report on events surrounding a weather divert. Flight was dispatched with no alternate; PUB had a runway closure preventing its use and the eventual diversion airport had low visibility.

Narrative: While enroute to DEN I overheard an aircraft on Commercial Radio tell Dispatch that the weather in DEN was going down. I contacted Dispatch and was given PUB as an alternate. While holding at the HGO VOR; I was able to get the PUB ATIS. It noted that 8L/26R was closed and that they were shooting the GPS 17 Approach. The off line alternate book does not have this approach plate and only included plates for the 8L/26R Approaches; and since the weather was 800 OVC; it was below our visual circling minimums. This turned out to be an unsuitable alternate; so I contacted Dispatch and asked if there were any other suitable alternates. They told me that they had just sent another aircraft to ZZZ; which was reporting 200 OVC and 1.25 VIS. I got the landing performance; and the Captain exercised his emergency authority; since we were now at bug out fuel. The flight arrived without incident in ZZZ. Dispatch sent us multiple releases that were illegal due to the fact that the alternates were not legal because of weather and equipment outages (NOTAMS).I did my job and can read and understand the FAR's and OPS SPECS. Dispatch failed to contact us enroute to advise us that the weather in DEN was going down. A heads up from Dispatch may have allowed us to divert to get more gas and weigh our options rather than box us into a corner where we had no choices left. This put the flight in a situation where time was not on our side and decisions were more time critical while the fuel was ticking down. Our aircraft is equipped with SELCAL and there appears to have been no attempt to contact us. Also we were not informed that there were any runway closures at PUB. By the time we got PUB ATIS and discovered the runways were closed and that it was unsuitable for an alternate; our options were very limited; to say the least. Dispatch also attempted to send us out of ZZZ with alternates that were unsuitable due to either the weather or ground facility outages. There is also a very limited number of alternates available near the DEN airport. It took multiple tries to have the Dispatcher produce a legal release document. The dispatchers need additional help when the weather goes down. Also; in bad weather situations someone should review their work before a release is sent to the flight crew to ensure that it meets the FAR and OP SPECS requirements.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.