It appears the D-layer was well ionized today due to the higher level and a longer duration dose of solar X-rays several hours before our daily 1630 UT propagation test.  The only path over spanned over 100 miles was from AB4AM running 1.5 KW SSB that was copied by KP2AE at approximately 160 miles.   WW8II's 1.4 KW CW was not heard today but the closest station was over 400 miles away.  KGØVL reported hearing a signal at times but the source was never identified.  

Signals at short range were severely down from even the weakest propagation days we have recently had.  KP2AE at 51 miles from W4DEX was Q5 less than 50% of the time.  The same for WA4LDU at W4DEX.  KW4DE also reported very weak copy on those two stations.  

The current Space Weather News explains the current conditions very well.