Flight crew reported severe turbulence and loss of aircraft control requiring evasive action.

Attributes
ACN	1720800
Time
Date	202001
Local Time Of Day	1801-2400
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.ARTCC
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	Mixed
Light	Night
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	B737-800
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Cruise
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Pilot Flying Captain
Qualification	Flight Crew Multiengine Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 519 Flight Crew Type 12000
Person 2
Function	Pilot Not Flying First Officer
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP) Flight Crew Multiengine Flight Crew Instrument
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe Deviation - Altitude Excursion From Assigned Altitude Inflight Event / Encounter Loss Of Aircraft Control Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence

Narrative:

Cruising at FL360 over northwest fl; we hit severe turbulence. Airspeed was uncontrollable; altitude uncontrollable; and autopilot kicked off. Gained over 300 ft. And lost over 600 ft. Before autopilot kicked off. Airspeed all the way up to redline then all the way down close to stall. We gained control of the aircraft and started a descent. We asked ATC for a block altitude and they came back and said descend to fl 340. We were out of the turbulence at fl 350. No one was hurt and we continued on to ZZZ. We did notice that the wind changed direction and speed. Up to 30 degrees and speed change was over 40 kts.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Flight Crew reported severe turbulence and loss of aircraft control requiring evasive action.

Narrative: Cruising at FL360 over northwest FL; we hit severe turbulence. Airspeed was uncontrollable; altitude uncontrollable; and autopilot kicked off. Gained over 300 ft. and lost over 600 ft. before autopilot kicked off. Airspeed all the way up to redline then all the way down close to stall. We gained control of the aircraft and started a descent. We asked ATC for a block altitude and they came back and said descend to FL 340. We were out of the turbulence at FL 350. No one was hurt and we continued on to ZZZ. We did notice that the wind changed direction and speed. Up to 30 degrees and speed change was over 40 kts.

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.