We investigate the effect of alpha stable noise on stochastic resonance in a single-threshold sensor system by analytic deduction and stochastic simulation. It is shown that stochastic resonance occurs in the threshold system in alpha stable noise environment, but the resonant effect becomes weakened as the alpha stable index decreases or the skewness parameter of alpha stable distribution increases. In particular, for Cauchy noise a nonlinear relation among the optimal noise deviation parameter, the signal amplitude and the threshold is analytically obtained and illustrated by using the extreme value condition for the output signal-to-noise ratio. The results presented in this communication should have application in signal detection and image restoration in the non-Gaussian noisy environment.