Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Communication Breakdown
Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural MEL / CDL; Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence
Flight Crew Became Reoriented
Aircraft; Human Factors; Procedure
We had an MEL restricting us to FL310. We were climbing out and there were some thunderstorms in the area and as we were going around the weather we leveled at FL300 with a bit of a bumpy ride. It was difficult to determine if we would be on top of the cell ahead and I could see that we were near the tops of the clouds visually. I asked the Captain if he could get us FL320. He said yes; requested it and we climbed to FL320. We cleared the weather and we were at FL320 for about three minutes when I realized our mistake. We then descended to FL300 and completed the flight.
First Officer of a large turbojet reported briefly climbing above an altitude restriction set by an MEL to avoid weather.