Narrative:

We were cruising at FL350 and had just turned north around some convective activity. About 50 miles later we saw some build ups ahead around our altitude so we got clearance to climb to FL370. Truthfully they didn't look menacing at all. They were barely painting green on the radar at all angles; and there was no lightning or anything worrying visible. Either way I called the fas and told them to be seated as it might get bumpy for a bit. Once we started the climb we noticed a larger build up in front of us so I requested a turn to the right to avoid the worst of it. When we entered it we encountered some moderate turbulence. We got airspeed fluctuations and the first officer clicked off the autopilot and went to max power to maintain airspeed; but he didn't make the callout. Believing the autopilot and auto throttles had turned off on their own; I attempted to reselect them but they were clicked off again without a callout. As we were approaching level off; we encountered a large updraft that increased our climb. Due to this we went through our altitude by around 300 feet. As soon as I was able I advised ATC of the situation and they said not to worry and to return down as soon as we could. After the fact there were no injuries or any issues in the cabin or found on the walk around. I wrote the aircraft up for a turbulence inspection upon arrival.even though the first officer did an excellent job at keeping the aircraft under control; I advised him to let the autopilot handle situations such as this especially in the flight levels unless it gets really bad. I also advised him that if he is going to turn off the automation he must make the other pilot aware by at least some means. As for the weather; avoiding it is always the obvious solution; however due to ATC constraints it is sometimes easier said than done. In the future both of us will be more diligent at getting clearance to avoid weather earlier and be more cautious with build ups.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: CRJ-900 flight crew reported encountering convective activity with an altitude gain of 300 feet at level off and communication issues between the crew members.

Narrative: We were cruising at FL350 and had just turned North around some convective activity. About 50 miles later we saw some build ups ahead around our altitude so we got clearance to climb to FL370. Truthfully they didn't look menacing at all. They were barely painting green on the radar at all angles; and there was no lightning or anything worrying visible. Either way I called the FAs and told them to be seated as it might get bumpy for a bit. Once we started the climb we noticed a larger build up in front of us so I requested a turn to the right to avoid the worst of it. When we entered it we encountered some moderate turbulence. We got airspeed fluctuations and the FO clicked off the autopilot and went to max power to maintain airspeed; but he didn't make the callout. Believing the autopilot and auto throttles had turned off on their own; I attempted to reselect them but they were clicked off again without a callout. As we were approaching level off; we encountered a large updraft that increased our climb. Due to this we went through our altitude by around 300 feet. As soon as I was able I advised ATC of the situation and they said not to worry and to return down as soon as we could. After the fact there were no injuries or any issues in the cabin or found on the walk around. I wrote the aircraft up for a turbulence inspection upon arrival.Even though the FO did an excellent job at keeping the aircraft under control; I advised him to let the autopilot handle situations such as this especially in the flight levels unless it gets really bad. I also advised him that if he is going to turn off the automation he must make the other pilot aware by at least some means. As for the weather; avoiding it is always the obvious solution; however due to ATC constraints it is sometimes easier said than done. In the future both of us will be more diligent at getting clearance to avoid weather earlier and be more cautious with build ups.

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.