Narrative:

The departure airport weather had snow; and border line freezing rain. After checking the dispatch release everything looked good to go. I was a little worried about our taxi fuel knowing that we would have to get de-iced. However I didn't think it would take and hour to get de-iced. The weather reports and forecast for msp looked decent to not have an alternate. We got de-iced and made our way to the runway and took off with out problem. Fuel was not an issue because we were above min fuel on our release. The flight to msp was uneventful. About over eau we pulled up your first metar for msp. To my surprise it was right at CAT ii minimums. At the same time the ATIS came up a display message from dispatch was sent giving the weather in lse; msp and dlh. The dispatcher had also given us fuel to get to dlh and estimated it to be 2;800 pounds. Now I started thinking is that the fuel needed to get to dlh at our current position or fuel to get to dlh after an approach to msp? At the time we are on the eau 8 arrival descending through FL240 to cross twins at 11;000 ft. Current fuel in the tanks was around 3;900. I did a quick present position (ppos) direct to dlh and looked at the time and fuel it would take. At ppos we would have landed in dlh with about 3;000 pounds or just under. I was thinking at the time this weather was not forecast for msp when we took off. With all the snow on the ground and a warmer air mass moving over snow more fog was likely to develop. Is this fog going to continue to dlh? I didn't have any notams for dlh and didn't know if the CAT ii was operational. I figured with our standard reserve of 45 minutes we would be ok to get to dlh if something happened in msp. We have now crossed twins and are close to landing. I asked the pilot not flying to have approach alert us if anybody went missed and advise them we were at min fuel. Now we got a weather update listing 12R below CAT ii minimum and 12L right at CAT ii minimums and an aircraft had just done a missed approach. Now we have 3;900 pounds in the tank and min fuel at msp 3;500. Thinking it would have taken 2;800 pounds to get to dlh gave us landing in dlh with about 900 pounds. We shot the approach and broke out right at min to 12L. Unforecasted weather is part of our job. We should have checked the weather once every hour to msp. Had I had this information I would have stopped for fuel along our route and gotten an alternate. The problem came as we were nearing approach and landing. We didn't have a lot of time or fuel to start holding and talk with dispatch. The pilot not flying did relay a message to dispatch of our fuel on board and intentions. I didn't know exactly what was said but we were going to continue on. We never got a reply message. A more frequent check of the weather and better fuel management could have helped our decision.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An ERJ170 was dispatched to MSP with no alternate fuel but enroute the weather deteriorated to CAT II minimums. A successful approach and landing were accomplished but better fuel planning would have made the flight less likely to declare a fuel emergency.

Narrative: The departure airport weather had snow; and border line freezing rain. After checking the dispatch release everything looked good to go. I was a little worried about our taxi fuel knowing that we would have to get de-iced. However I didn't think it would take and hour to get de-iced. The weather reports and forecast for MSP looked decent to not have an alternate. We got de-iced and made our way to the runway and took off with out problem. Fuel was not an issue because we were above MIN fuel on our release. The flight to MSP was uneventful. About over EAU we pulled up your first METAR for MSP. To my surprise it was right at CAT II minimums. At the same time the ATIS came up a display message from Dispatch was sent giving the weather in LSE; MSP and DLH. The Dispatcher had also given us fuel to get to DLH and estimated it to be 2;800 LBS. Now I started thinking is that the fuel needed to get to DLH at our current position or fuel to get to DLH after an approach to MSP? At the time we are on the EAU 8 arrival descending through FL240 to cross TWINS at 11;000 FT. Current fuel in the tanks was around 3;900. I did a quick present position (PPOS) direct to DLH and looked at the time and fuel it would take. At PPOS we would have landed in DLH with about 3;000 LBS or just under. I was thinking at the time this weather was not forecast for MSP when we took off. With all the snow on the ground and a warmer air mass moving over snow more fog was likely to develop. Is this fog going to continue to DLH? I didn't have any NOTAMs for DLH and didn't know if the CAT II was operational. I figured with our standard reserve of 45 minutes we would be OK to get to DLH if something happened in MSP. We have now crossed TWINS and are close to landing. I asked the pilot not flying to have approach alert us if anybody went missed and advise them we were at MIN fuel. Now we got a weather update listing 12R below CAT II minimum and 12L right at CAT II minimums and an aircraft had just done a missed approach. Now we have 3;900 LBS in the tank and min fuel at MSP 3;500. Thinking it would have taken 2;800 LBS to get to DLH gave us landing in DLH with about 900 LBS. We shot the approach and broke out right at MIN to 12L. Unforecasted weather is part of our job. We should have checked the weather once every hour to MSP. Had I had this information I would have stopped for fuel along our route and gotten an alternate. The problem came as we were nearing approach and landing. We didn't have a lot of time or fuel to start holding and talk with Dispatch. The pilot not flying did relay a message to Dispatch of our fuel on board and intentions. I didn't know exactly what was said but we were going to continue on. We never got a reply message. A more frequent check of the weather and better fuel management could have helped our decision.

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.