Big fall in needy announced by county (8)
I believe the answer is:
downpour
'big fall' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'announced by county' is the wordplay.
'announced' becomes 'pour' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'by' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'county' becomes 'down' (County Down in Northern Ireland).
'pour' put after 'down' is 'DOWNPOUR'.
'in needy' is the link.
This may not be right. Some or all of it may be part of another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for downpour that I've seen before include "Now proud (anag)" , "Torrent" , "Heavy shower" , "Cloudburst" , "Big fall makes" .)