It's exactly what he has done for instance in TPOD. The winds start on Tremalking, we get descriptions of the Amayar etc. and it travels the Sea, and we get a SF trade recap, and we end in Altara.

What RJ has not ever done is spend so much time at the starting location before moving on to the end location, but it's fairly obvious this meant to tie and contrast the largest city and a very remote place in a natural setting, the book's two main locations, maybe. This is very RJ-like. It is not terribly different from the way RJ linked the Sea Folk Islands and Altara before a scene dealing with the Sea Folk Bargain. What is different is that RJ rarely spent long on the wind sequence. RJ's Tar Valon recap would probably have been more succint.

Incidentally, the sequence is probably RJ's own. Brandon said long ago that he had to add to this chapter the classic first paragraph, because RJ didn't put it in his outline/telling of the scene. The idea to do a TV recap and move to Arad Doman is probably not Brandon's own idea - he wrote it following the outlline would be my guess.