Cattle farms brace during heatwave

Growing up in Armidale in northwestern NSW, Rebecca Cadzow remembers Christmas snow during summer cold snaps.

No such luck on her cattle property in Central Australia, where temperatures reached 42.9C by 9.30am on Thursday.

Generator-powered air-conditioning and a pool kept the Cadzows cool as they braced for temperatures at their Mount Riddock cattle station, near Alice Springs, to hit 45C.

Further along the Plenty Highway, neighbours Denise and Michael Broad at Jervois cattle station were having problems with their computer weather measurement system, and the 500-metre trip to check the thermometers was too hot to walk.

Mrs Broad told AAP the heatwave of 40C-plus temperatures since Saturday was the longest she could remember since moving to the station almost 34 years ago.

Jervois Station recorded its driest year on record, with 95.8 millimetres of rain.

"We need rain for feed," Mrs Broad said.

"The last good rain was in May, and nothing much on either side."

Thousands of cattle on the 404,600-hectare property were sticking close to water, with a few of the older animals dying.

Temperatures on Thursday reached 43.2C at Alice Springs airport, 42.7C at Yulara near Uluru, and Tennant Creek recorded its hottest-ever January day at 45.1C.

But the mercury climbed even higher at the Brunette Downs cattle station, hitting 45.5 at 3pm.

Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster Mark Kersemakers said no rain was on the horizon for the region, but a cool change was forecast for the weekend.

He said temperatures for next week were expected to be average or below average for early January.

For an area no stranger to heat, that means respite at about 35C.