October has given us an indication of what to expect from 10 Meters this season. Europeans aren't out of the picture entirely. Sometimes there are a lot of signals on the band, but usually there are only a few. CW activity is sparse. The primary day path band this fall is 15.
Solar fluxes down in the 90 don't seem to bother 15 much at this time of the year, though openings are shorter. We can still get into most of Russia and the Middle East, and Europeans are coming through in quantity. Moving into winter, the area of darkness over the pole will grow to make the polar paths more difficult.
20 is closing in the early evening, moving most activity to 40 and 80. European signals can be heard on 20 for much of the day, with polar openings in the morning and around sunset. DXing is good for several hours of the morning and in late afternoon to early evening. The band stays open longer in the southern hemisphere and around the equator, so it is not uncommon to find the band open to Africa late in the day here. After sunset we get an opening to South America where many loud signals have a ring distinctively different from the echo we hear from over the pole. If you tune carefully across the band during this period, stations in the Antarctic can be worked with an occasional long path signal from Asia. As 20 closes, the last few signals on the band are often rare DX, and can come from any direction.
During the evening the activity moves to 40 and 80, but there is usually not much activity out of Europe during our prime time. This is because it is too early - sunrise in Europe occurs later in the evening, and the peak in activity occurs after most in the USA have packed it in for the night. The 40 Meter perspective is certainly much different for those with high beams, and the evening would be a good time to work Russians. Most of the pileups on 40 in the evening are either Caribbean stations or Africans.
There is more activity on 80 this year, though signals from Europe don't seem any stronger. Judging by the packet spots, most of the activity is up in the SSB portion. Down on CW, there are usually only 1 or 2 DX stations on the band at a time (with everybody in there calling.) In the course of an evening, stations from several countries will come on and can be worked if the band is checked frequently.