Terry
I have only experienced severe turbulence once. Usually one pilots description of mild, moderate, heavy, or severe will vary by what they have experienced themselves so one pilots description of mild can be reported as moderate by another.
I flew some PAX to Nice. We had a warning to expect severe turbulence between FL200 and FL300.
Descending from FL360 I warned the PAX to secure their seatbelts as we were going to experience a very bumpy ride.
The air all the way down into Nice was as smooth as a babies bottom much to my embarassement as I am sure the PAX must have thought what sort of Wally Captain they had up front.
Taking the aircraft back to the UK empty we took off on a more northerly SID passing FL200 all hell let loose with the aircraft almost uncontrollable. Violent Pitches and wing drops. Cupboards flying open items flying everywhere.
I asked for an immediate climb to above FL300 due to severe turbulence.
FL200 to 300 normally shows around 1000 fpm in the Citation back to 600 fpm in the high 20s.
The VSI was showing over 3000 fpm all the way through FL300 where the air went dead smooth.
Pace