Widebody Transport
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Situational Awareness
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Inflight Event / Encounter Fuel Issue; Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence
Air Traffic Control Provided Assistance; Flight Crew Diverted; Flight Crew Landed As Precaution
Weather
On arrival; PHX was experiencing wind-shear and microburst activity and a dust storm was approaching. On visual approach to runway 7R at PHX wind-shear and microburst alerts were activating; PIREPs were reporting 20 knot loss of airspeed on final. Elected not to descend at the VDP; fly straight through initial and avoid wind-shear conditions. WX Conditions remained over PHX airport and continued to degrade in the surrounding area. After 20 minutes of vectoring informed PHX Approach control that we will be reaching a fuel critical / emergency fuel state if not on the ground by then. Flight crew was coordinating with PHX Tower and Approach control; company dispatcher; PHX Ramp control; to find the safest place to land. Exercising Captains authority I decided to land ZZZ; [a nearby airport]. The landing was uneventful; ground support met us and we shut down; and the fuel system indicted total 10;800 LBS (200 LBS below our emergency fuel amount). The aircraft was serviced and after the severe weather was no longer a threat we took off and flew to PHX. All agencies were coordinated with during this evolution and Duty officer kept apprised of the situation and solicited for advice. Kudos to PHX approach controllers; Ground Services at ZZZ and my First Officer; who's new to the company and been on the line for 4months; all did a great job! Emergency was not declared; as soon a decision was made expeditious traffic handling got us over ZZZ in just moments. Weather forecasted other then what was actually encountered upon arrival. Give us more fuel! Closer monitoring of weather while enroute to destination.
Widebody Captain reported encountering un-forecast windshear and microburst activity upon arrival at PHX. After 20 minutes of vectoring the crew elected to divert; landing with 10;800 LBS of fuel.