A300
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence
General None Reported / Taken
Weather
This was an IOE training flight with a new hire student. During our preflight planning we looked at weather and NOTAMs and didn't see any significant weather along route of flight except some turbulence. We pulled up an aviation weather website and saw moderate turbulence prediction for [near our route; but] it looked to be north and east of our route. We saw the jet stream had moved south. When we became airborne we started hearing PIREPS for moderate turbulence through altitudes we were transiting so we slowed to turbulence penetration speed and actually a little slower; 270 KIAS. We also heard a SIGMET for moderate turbulence. We were given an early turn off of our SID to direct to a fix on our arrival. This turn took us further south of original route. At FL240 while in the climb to cruise we experienced severe turbulence. We made a PIREP report and then determined the crew and aircraft were ok. There was no ACARS report of lateral or vertical Gs exceeded. The autopilot was on and never disconnected. After landing we made a write up in the Aircraft Maintenance Log (AML) and interviewed with maintenance followed by mandatory flight safety report.Like windshear; it's difficult to detect where turbulence will be encountered. We had also looked on our flight plan release at the tropopause windshear column for the clues that there would be turbulence on our route; shear of 10 knots or more indicate turbulence. The numbers we had didn't indicate severe turbulence. It would help pilots to have a 'picture' of the area affected; like we saw on the aviation website. But we don't have WiFi on aircraft and are busy with the task of flying and navigating. Also a direct routing clearance can take you off track from what you know about your route of flight and planning.When a SIGMET comes out; the only real help is other PIREPS given by pilots at altitude. ATC has the most updated info. If you are on a direct route it is difficult to ascertain if you are near the affected area sometimes. The iPad is a great tool but we have to know how to analyze the SIGMET quickly. So while we are flying it would be helpful if upon checking in with ATC they could tell us the threats along our route; not that turbulence was reported south of such and such VOR that we have never heard of. Information needs to be meaningful and timely to be useful in a dynamic and busy environment.
A300 Captain reported encountering severe turbulence at FL240 during climb with no 'G' limits exceeded.